Gundam SEED CHAOS: Wings of Rebellion
by ZhaneX
Summary: In the year C.E.75, a rogue group of Coordinators who follow the ways of Patrick Zala rise up against Supreme Chairwoman Lacus Clyne, intent on ending her term and restarting a war with the Naturals. Mobile Suits from other series featured SEED Style
1. Security Really Sucks Around Here

Hello, Hello, Hello! I suddenly, and for no real reason, decided to write a Gundam SEED Destiny Fanfic. As with any of my other fanfics, it's a sequel concept, as I don't like writing any other kinds of stories. If you've read the summary before selecting this story, you should know what it's about, so I'll just shut up with my foreword (Fore-rant more like it) and let you get to reading a Gundam SEED story!

_**Chapter 1: Security Really Sucks Around Here**_

**The Year is C.E.75, two years have passed since the end of the Second Bloody Valentine War. In the aftermath of the combat, PLANT Supreme Chairwoman Lacus Clyne set about repairing damaged relations with the Earth Federation alongside Orb Union Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha. With the total purge of the Political Hate Ground Blue Cosmos performed by former Supreme Chairman Gilbert Durandal, a peace between the three groups was quickly reached. For the last two years, this peace has gone undisturbed. But history has shown, that if even a single person is dissatisfied with their government, conflict will inevitably ensue.**

* * *

A computer screen glared before the man's face as he looked over the Mobile Suit blueprints displayed on it. The room he was in was pitch black, other than the computer. A small window in the corner of the screen had a line across it, which suddenly spiked up and down.

"_So, what do you think?"_ a voice came from the computer, apparently the man in the room was having a voice chat.

"They're...interesting, to say the least." The man replied.

"_Interesting? Y'know, with a word like that, I can't tell if you like them or not."_

"Well, it's not me that needs to 'like' them, that's really more for you and your men."

"_Keheheh, yeah, pretty soon they'll be ours to use! But still, don't you want to like the things that'll be doing your dirty work?"_

"I don't really care, as long as they work well enough, I'm fine."

"_Right..."_

"In any event, when are you going to be able to take them?"

"_They're being transported from Armoury 1 down to Orb for an inauguration in two days. We'll take them then."_

"Why don't you just take them straight from Armoury 1? Shouldn't be too hard, eheheh."

"_Haha, laugh all you want, but you know that security around that place was pumped up after the theft of the Mode-Changers...almost three years ago now, right?"_

"You're right...well, it's about time that we put some excitement back into the world."

"_Excitement, heh, that's one word for it!"_

"Your unique definitions aside, I'll see you at the rendezvous point in two days."

"_See ya there. Let Zala Guide Your Blade."_

"Thanks...one more thing..."

"_Huh? What is it? I really hate saying that corny warrior's good-bye thing only to have the conversation continue..."_

"Sorry, I just wanted to know, which one are you going to take?"

"_I've grown to like the red one, with the wings. Anyway, good-bye."_

"Right, Let Zala Guide Your Blade."

"_Yeah yeah."_

The audio line in the corner of the computer stopped moving and the window closed as the call was ended. The man in the dark continued to look over the blueprints of the Mobile Suits. Scrolling down he found one which, in a rendered image, was coloured red. It had a pair of large demonic wings, and it's only visible armament was a small shield on its left arm.

"So...he wants this one..." The man looked over the specs and details of the Suit for a moment before smiling, "Yeah...sounds like him alright..."

* * *

Sunlight filtered into a large bedroom as the curtains covering a ceiling-high window were pushed ever so slightly to the side, not enough to flood the room, but enough to allow the inhabitants to see around. The one who had opened the curtains was a young man, probably around 20 years old. He was wearing a pair of grey sweat pants and no shirt, revealing a slim body with a powerful, if easily unnoticed, framework of muscles. He had a head covered in thick light-brown hair which fell heavily around the sides of his face, framing his soft, almost delicate features. Raising up one arm while reaching the other around his head to grab the elbow, stretching it out, he gave out a yawn before allowing his arm to go loose again. Looking through the window, he had a full view of the Space Colony Aprilius One, Capital of the PLANTs. The beautiful, panoramic scenery was a sight to behold, and an amazing way to wake up in the morning, though his attention was drawn from the window as he heard a soft yawn coming from behind him. Turning around with a slight frown on his face, he could see someone rising from the bed a few feet from the window.

"Kira?..." a sweet, gentle voice came from the woman rising from the bed.

She was wearing a simple dark pink nightgown which came down to just above her knees and hung around her shoulders, though was just a bit loose around her chest. She had long pink hair which came down about three quarters of the way down her back and that framed her gentle face in a way similar to Kira's, though a long strand of hair came down on either side to rest near her neck.

"Ugh, what time is it?" She asked.

"Sorry Lacus...I didn't mean to wake you." Kira said with a soft smile.

"Thank you...but I have responsibilities, so better to wake up earlier than later..." Lacus replied, spreading out her arms and giving a yawn before pulling her arms back in and rubbing her eyes.

"Right, I know. I was going to get you up just as soon as I had a chance to take a shower and get dressed, but since you're up, you go first." He said with a kind smile.

"No no, that's fine, you can go first Kira." She replied with an equally kind smile.

"Please, I can wait. It doesn't matter if an Admiral shows up a bit late, but the PLANT Supreme Chairwoman should always be punctual."

"Alright, if you insist..." Lacus said happily, getting off the bed and moving in the opposite direction of the window, a door opening up a few feet away, leading into a bathroom.

As the sounds of a shower began to emanate from the bathroom, Kira sat back down on the bed. Reaching out to a bedside table, his hand waved over several pictures before settling on one. Picking it up, he glanced over the photo. In it he was standing in a black tuxedo holding hands with Lacus in a white dress, surrounded by their friends. It was his wedding photo. Setting it down he brought his hands together, rubbing the gold band on his right ring finger, smiling at the happiness the simple act of rubbing the band brought him. He was shocked out of his thoughts as a pair of arms wrapped around his neck gentle, accompanied by a voice.

"Shower's ready." Lacus said with a smile.

"Oh Lacus, you surprised me. Done already?" Kira replied, turning around and blushing when he saw Lacus was in nothing but two towels, one around her body and another around her head, holding up her wet hair. She giggled when she noticed him blushing.

"What's the matter Kira? This isn't exactly much less than what I was wearing before." She said with a grin.

"I-I-...I guess it's just that I'm more awake now..." Kira said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Is that so...well, good to know I can still make you blush even after a year of marriage." She said, giving a large, prideful smile.

"You'll probably still be able to do that even after 50 years." Kira said with a soft smile and he looked at Lacus before standing up, "Anyway, as much as I'd love to stay here and say how much I love you, the day marches on. I'd better go take my shower and let you get dressed."

"Right..." Lacus said, sounding just a bit disappointed.

Standing up, Kira walked around the edge of the bed, giving Lacus a kiss on the cheek as he passed her before making his way to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Kira exited the bathroom wearing a towel around his waist with another draped over his head. Walking behind the bed, he found the doors to the large walk-in closet he and Lacus shared open. Walking in, he pulled his white Admiral's Coat off from his side, tossing his towels into a hamper off in the corner as he finished drying off. Pulling on his pants, socks and undershirt, he put the coat on and did up the belt as he walked out of the closet, closing the door behind him as he proceed past the bed and out into the main part of his and Lacus' apartment. Exiting the bedroom led to a hallway which was adorned with photos on either side. Reaching the end of the hall led into the main living area. Off the left was the entry hall, while forward was the living room and right led to the kitchen which was open to the living room. Seeing Lacus standing at the kitchen island between the kitchen and living room, Kira walked into the living room before turning right and taking a seat at a tall chair at the island so he was seated across from Lacus, who was cutting up some vegetables. She was dressed in her Uniform as Plant Supreme Chairwoman, a long elegant black and purple dress, with her hair tied up with a large white bow into a ponytail, and held above her face with her usual golden hairclip.

"Making some lunches?" Kira asked as he sat down.

"A lunch, yes. Didn't have enough time to make two this morning. Sorry Kira." She said plainly.

"What?!" Kira said, visibly shocked.

"I'm kidding dear, you know I keep extra food at my office." Lacus said, reaching across the island and pulling Kira's head towards her and giving him a kiss on the forehead before resuming cutting the vegetables.

"Oh right...how could I forget that." Kira said, leaning back in his chair with a smile.

Finishing her work, Lacus gathered the vegetables and placed them in a lunch box with some sushi, a beef sandwich, a thermos of coffee, and a piece of small slice of chocolate cake with pink icing. Packing it up, Lacus pushed it over to Kira before putting the utensils into the washing machine, washing her hands and began heading towards the door, followed quickly by Kira.

"Y'know, sometimes I feel like a little kid when you pack me these lunches." He said, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"Well, I could stop making them for you. You could eat at the cafeteria with Shinn, Luna, Yzak, Shiho and Dearka." Lacus said, raising one hand up to place a finger on her chin as she turned to Kira with a smile.

"No no!" Kira said fretfully, "I'd much rather have your home made lunches!"

"Glad to hear it." She said as they walked out the door.

* * *

Yzak ran a hand through his straight-cut white hair as he tapped his foot impatiently. He was standing outside the entrance to the PLANT Supreme Council Building with Dearka, Shinn, Luna and Shiho. Dearka was standing patiently next to Yzak, ruffling his short blonde hair while smiling at how impatient Yzak was. Shinn and Luna were talking over by the door, about what Yzak couldn't make out, and Shiho was continually glancing back and forth between Yzak and the road leading up to the building, worried about her commanders increasing impatience, not finding it nearly as funny as Dearka was. Suddenly she raised her arm and pointed off down the road.

"Hey, there they are!"

His attention drawn, Yzak looked down the road to see a black sports car driving up to the Council Building. Driving up, he could clearly see Kira at the wheel and Lacus sitting next to him as they pulled into a private space off to the right of the door. Opening his door, Kira walked around to the other side of the car, opening Lacus' door for her. Taking her arm, the two walked over to the door, met by Yzak.

"Good morning ma'am, we were beginning to worry about how long it was taking for you and Admiral Yamato to arrive." Yzak said, addressing Lacus with a quick nod to Kira when his name came up.

"Please Yzak," Dearka said, walking up and placing a hand on Yzak's shoulder, "They're no later than usual, you're just nervous today."

"For good reason." Kira said, "Today's the day that we all head to Orb with the new Mobile Suits."

"I still don't see why we still need to manufacture new Mobile Suits in this time of peace..." Lacus said with a sigh and a concerned look.

"Unfortunately ma'am, Councilman Durandal may have been insane," Yzak started, "but he was right when he said 'Power is a necessity, there will always be conflict'. I know it may not be the nicest thing to think about, but it's true. Better that we keep a foot up in Development before some group of radicals makes a move."

"Anyway, we should head in." Shiho said coming up next to Yzak, "The Council is waiting for your address before we take the new Suits to Orb."

"Right." Lacus said before proceeding towards the building, accompanied by Kira with Yzak, Shiho and Dearka following behind.

As they entered the building Dearka had to stop outside to grab Shinn and Luna, who had apparently been so caught up in their conversation that they hadn't noticed Kira and Lacus arrive.

* * *

Several hours later, Yzak was taking his seat on the bridge of his Nazca-Class the _**Voltaire**_, Shiho and Dearka standing on either side of him.

"Alright everyone," Yzak said, addressing his crew, "We'll be transporting the new Mobile Suits to Orb for their inauguration. The _**Eternal**_ will be following behind us along with the _**Rousseau**_. The protection of these new Suits is the top priority. After the theft of, well, all previous Mobile Suits of this line in the last 5 years, we cannot fail."

"Somehow that feels like jinx..." Dearka said with a short laugh.

Yzak glared up at his friend before turning back to the front of the bridge, raising his arm with his fingers outspread.

"_**Voltaire**_, Launch!"

The engines of the two Nazca-Class spaceships along with the _**Eternal**_ flared to life as the three ships pulled out of the space dock, moving out into open space as they reached cruising speed. Relaxing into his chair, Yzak glanced up as someone entered the bridge. The person in question wore a ZAFT Elite Red uniform with the addition of a small golden tousle on each shoulder. He had short dirty blonde hair, a fair bit lighter than Dearka's which was swept back over his head. He had relaxed, almost bored-looking features, like he didn't want to be there, though at the same time there was a resolve to him as well.

"And who are you?" Yzak asked as the man came to stand by his seat.

"My name is Zexion Seer. My squad was assigned to guard the new Mobile Suits. The rest of my team is probably patrolling the ship." He replied.

"Really? I wasn't informed that the Mobile Suits came with an extra security force." Yzak said, sounding a bit doubtful.

"Well, what do you expect? After ZAFTs own theft of Mobile Suits in the First Bloody Valentine War, and the theft of ZAFT's own suits in the Second, extra security is only to be expected."

"He's got a point Yzak." Dearka stated.

"I know, but I like to be informed on these things." Yzak said, sounding annoyed.

"In any event sir," Zexion said addressing Yzak, "I'd best get back to patrolling with my team. I simply wanted to introduce myself. If you want a report on my squad's activities, just contact me."

"Alright, you can head back to your team then Zexion."

"Right, and please, call me Zex, I don't usually go by my full name." Zex stated before excusing himself and exiting the bridge.

* * *

Sometime the next day, Yzak again took a seat on the bridge. He estimated that they were about halfway to Earth, and so far there hadn't been any trouble. Shiho was standing over a monitor, looking at the radar along with the operator. Dearka had gone down to the Mobile Suit hangar to look over the Mobile Suits, both old and new. Yzak glanced behind him as the door opened, allowing two men access to the bridge. One was Zex and the other was a member of his squad. In Yzak's opinion he was one of the creepiest human beings in existence. He had short black hair with the odd choice of green highlights spaced evenly around his head. His eyes were narrow, but opened enough to show dull blue eyes. His face was seemingly fixed into a sly grin. He wore an Elite Red Uniform like Zex, though in lieu of the gold tousles Zex had on his shoulders, this man had a long black coat over his uniform. His name was Haze Yuki. Yzak didn't trust him, but he was on Zex's Squad and despite his earlier misgivings he had called the Eternal and gotten confirmation about the group from Lacus.

"Hello gentlemen, what can I do for you?" Yzak asked as Zex came up to his chair, Haze following beside him.

"We're just here to give a progress report. We've double checked all compartments, all the crew, everyone checks out, nothing suspicious aboard. Everything's good." Zex replied.

"Well, that's a load off my mind..." Yzak said, still a bit nervous about something.

"Keheheh, you sound nervous commander!" Haze said, beginning with his odd laugh that just unsettled Yzak even more.

"No, it's nothing. Just thinking about the previous Mobile Suit thefts..."

"Indeed, it would unsettle anyone..." Zex agreed.

"Still, we're halfway there, halfway to being able to stop worrying." Yzak said with renewed hope.

* * *

Later that day...

Yzak looked out of the bridge as they passed the moon, glad to see the marker of their close proximity to Earth. Zex had come up to the bridge and was looking out the view screen from behind the pilot's shoulder. Shiho was standing in front of the door, looking over the display table behind Yzak. Finally having gotten used to Zex and his team's presence, even Haze's, Yzak was finally relaxing. As he settled into the chair and looked out at the moon, his peace was disturbed by the sound of the door opening, followed by a creepy laugh.

_Haze. Great._ Yzak thought.

Standing up, he turned around to ask the creepy individual what he was doing there just as Shiho gave out a soft grunt as she fell over the display table unconscious, the cause being Haze who had apparently knocked her out with the back of the gun he was holding in his hand.

"Haze! What the hell are you doing?!" Yzak yelled.

Hearing Yzak yelling at his subordinate Zex turned around to see Haze now pointing the gun at Yzak.

"Haze, what's the meaning of this?" Zex asked calmly.

"Oh, you don't understand sir? Well, for an explanation, I'll ask that you please look to a Military History file depicting the thefts of Prototype Mobile Suits over the last 5 years." Haze stated, his normal grin stretched even wider.

"You're-you're trying to steal the Mobile Suits?" Zex said in shock, "By yourself? Are you insane?!"

"Probably, though I'm not alone."

As Haze explained his intentions, three others had walked up behind him, all holding Assault Rifles, two men one woman. One man messy blonde hair and wore a pair of small sunglasses over his nose that covered half his eyes. He wore a green ZAFT Uniform. The other man had dark-bluish hair that was swept over to one side. He was wearing a custom blue pilot's uniform. The woman had medium-length red hair that framed her elegant features. She wore a custom female ZAFT Red Uniform, similar to Lunamaria's, but with a much longer and less frilly skirt. They were the three other members of Zex's squad.

"Robert, Cam, Ami! What the hell is this?!" Zex yelled, his calm composure lost at seeing his other squad members apparently betraying him.

"Simple. We don't quite agree with how things are, so we're going to change them." The blonde, Robert stated.

"We hate bloody Lacus Clyne and how much she loves the damn Naturals." Ami said.

"So we're taking the new Mobile Suits, in the name of Patrick Zala!" Cam claimed.

"What did you say?!" Yzak exclaimed.

"You heard him." Haze began, "We believe in the ways of Patrick Zala, a true visionary! He knew that we Coordinators were meant for something more, so we're going to ahead and continuing his plans."

"You really are insane!" Yzak yelled, "Patrick Zala's been dead for years! No one wants that kind of world anymore!"

"Really?" Haze said with a smile, "Then how is it that our movement already has over 4000 supporters, with more joining every single day?"

Yzak and Zex both look aghast with surprise at hearing how large their group supposedly was. Regaining his composition, Zex quickly drew his gun to try and kill his former teammates, but before he could even raise it, Haze had already shot his former leader through the heart. Yzak could only look on in shock as the man fell to the ground, dead. Barely a moment later, Yzak heard another gunshot. Looking down, he could see blood covering his white coat around his middle. Falling to the ground, his head would up facing the door as the four traitors exited the room. Then, black.

* * *

Haze had a mad grin on his face as he walked through the door into the hangar, his gun sounding off as he killed the first crewman he saw. His teammates quickly followed suit, firing their guns on everyone in sight. Proceeding past the dead bodies, they found five Mobile Suits side-by-side. They were all grey due to the lack of the Phase-Shift Armor being on, except for one that shone gold.

"Take your pick." Haze said with a laugh before walking over to his chosen weapon.

The latest ZAFT Prototype Mobile Suits were radically different than those that had come before. One had two large wing-shaped thrusters extending out from its back. A small claw could be seen on each arm, along with a small shield on the left arm. It's head was seemingly designed like that of a demon, though seemingly around a face design that Admiral Yamato referred to as "Gundam". A large gem-like object was in its chest just above its cockpit. This Suit was chosen by Haze.

The second was practically the opposite. It had a Gundam Head as well, but with a more angelic design to it. Instead of wings a large binder extended from either side of the back. It carried a large twin-barrelled rifle in its right hand, while a shield covered it's left. Similar to the last one, it had a large gem-like object in the chest. This one was taken by Cam.

The next was the golden suit. It was covered in the same shining Yata-No-Kagami Beam Reflection Armor as the Orb Union's Akatsuki. It didn't have the "Gundam" head like the previous one, rather it's head bore more of a similarity to the Earth Federation's Dagger line. A large blade-like object was positioned over a thrust at each shoulder blade, and it's shoulder pads were rounded with a thrusters in each. This one was taken by Robert.

The fourth was a larger suit, it seemed like it barely fit in it's part of the hangar. It's armor was thicker than the others, especially it's large shoulder and waist plates. A large thruster extended out from the sides of its back, with several small weapons contained in them. It's head was entirely different from the others, though it was similar to previous ZAFT designs with having a single eye, it's was a more angular, streamlined design. The head also had the unusual distinction of holding the cockpit, which opened to allow Ami to enter her chosen unit.

"Hey, what about that one?" Robert said as he took his seat in his chosen unit, pointing over to the one next to Haze's, closest to the door.

"Leave it." Haze answered, "Based on what I know it's the weakest of the bunch. It wasn't even designed as a full combat suit, it's really more of a test bed for the other designs. I don't even think it was going to be in the ceremony. Thing's a museum piece."

"...if you say so..." Robert said hesitantly as his cockpit closed, the lights of the display lighting up.

The screen in each Mobile Suit came to life as the Heads-Up-Display showed the summary of each one's Operation System, culminating in the display of the acronym G.U.N.D.A.M. As the OS screen vanished, each traitorous pilot looked as the name of their chosen unit was displayed before disappearing to show the hangar. Haze's was called Epyon, Cam's stated Wing Zero, Roberts displayed Hyaku Shiki, and Ami's was Sazabi. As the HUD shifted to display an image of the hangar, each pilot pressed a small button that activated the Phase Shift Armor, bringing color to each Mobile Suit. Epyon lit up with shades of dark red, perfectly fitting it's demonic design. Wing Zero became mostly white, though with some areas of blue and red. Sazabi became coloured shades of bright red all over. As the four units were activated, they rose up and smashed through the bonds keeping them against the walls.

"You know..." Robert started, "There's no one to work the catapult, how're we gonna get outta here?"

"Don't worry," Haze replied, "You just grab all the optional equipment for these things, Ami'll handle our exit."

The Hyaku Shiki floated off to one side of the hangar, grabbed hold of several large containers, while the Sazabi positioned itself directly in front of the hangar doors. A large piece of armor in the middle of its chest slid upwards, revealing a cannon behind it. Light green energy began to come from the barrel of the cannon before being unleashed as a powerful blast which tore through the hangar doors, opening the way into open space.

"Let's go." Haze said, pushing forward on his controls, moving the Epyon out into space, his teammates following behind him quickly. As they reached a fair distance from the Voltaire, Haze opened a com-link with Ami, "Blow that ship to pieces, I don't think anyone survived, but better safe than sorry."

"Right." Ami replied before the Sazabi moved into position, opening it's chest cannon again.

As she was about to fire, Ami was forced to pull back as a multitude of beam rapid fire beam shots came at her from the Voltaire. A black Blaze ZAKU Phantom shot out from the wrecked hangar, continually firing it's beam cannons at the four traitors.

"Hey isn't that-" Robert started to say.

"Yeah, Dearka's custom ZAKU..." Haze confirmed.

"Damn, now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing his corpse." Cam stated.

"You bastards! I'll kill you, you damn traitors!" Dearka yelled over an open channel as his ZAKU rushed towards them.

Leaving the spare equipment to float about, Robert engaged the Hyaku Shiki's thrusters and rapidly flew at Dearka. Ami meanwhile resumed her attempt to destroy the Voltaire. Drawing a beam rifle, Robert fired several shots at Dearka which were evaded before he fired his own shots at the Hyaku Shiki. Dearka must not of known about the Hyaku Shiki's reflective coating, because he was shocked as the beam shots reflected off the armor and came right back at him, damaging his ZAKU's arms, left leg, and Wizard Pak, leaving him almost helpless. Ami meanwhile fired a powerful blast from the Sazabi's cannon, which blasted through the Voltaire's engine, started a chain of explosions.

"What's the matter Dearka? Not quite up to the challenge?" Robert said as he put the beam rifle away and drew out a beam saber, rushing towards the ZAKU intent on stabbing it through the cockpit, "Allow me to let you join your comrades!"

"I'm not dead yet dammit!"

Robert was forced to pull away from his charge as a beam blast, equal in power to, if not greater than, the Sazabi's cut a path between him and Dearka. Looking back at the exploding ship, the four thieves could see a White Mobile Suit fly out of the hangar even as it exploded. The large beam cannon that had stopped Robert from killing Dearka repositioned itself into a docked position on the Suit's right shoulder. A blue shield, similar to the one on the Epyon's arm, was positioned on the left shoulder. Powerful blue thrusters extended on either side of its back. Its head was unlike any of the others, bearing no resemblance to any other sort of suit. It looked something like a knight's helmet, with a narrow eyehole glowing green above the white facemask and a large gold crest on the forehead.

"Hey isn't that the museum piece?" Robert asked incredulously.

"I don't get it!" Haze yelled in reply, "My info stated it was nothing but a doll! A prototype for the prototypes! It shouldn't even be charged!"

"Who the hell's even piloting it?" Ami questioned.

In the cockpit of the white suit, the pilot tightened his grip on the controls. Glancing at the unconscious brown-haired girl laying across his lap, he took a glance at the screen seeing the name of it. Tallgeese III. As the name vanished, his face tightened in anger.

"You damn traitors. You've ruined my reputation. Stolen these Mobile Suits. Killed almost every member of my crew...I won't let you-I WON'T LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS!"

Ignoring the bleeding hole in his chest, Yzak pushed forward on the controls, rocketing the Tallgeese towards the stolen units, intent on retrieving them, or destroying them.

* * *

Alright, that's all folks! This is a one-shot, there will be no continuation. Just kidding! Well maybe, maybe not. It depends on the review really. If people like the story, and the concepts, then I'll keep writing it. If not, more time for my other stories. Anyway, please review! I want to know what people think, such as how I've written the characters, what they think of the OCs, or my blatant ripping off of Mobile Suits from several other series...well, it's not supposed to be ripping off, I just thought it was a cool idea if some older Mobile Suits got a SEED-style update! So don't expect these guys to be the same as they were in their own series, expect new and improved weapons, new features, altered features and more! Until next time (Hopefully), see ya!


	2. Ace in Hole 1, 2 and 3

Okay, even though I haven't received many reviews, the few I have were quite positive, so I decided to write a new chapter. Chapter 1 set up the premise, so now Chapter 2 will get straight into the action. Well, not straight into, but nearly. So please read and review. Even if you hate it, I just want some reviews that tell me people's opinion. If I don't get critisisms, how can I improve? So please review, I want to hear everyone's opinion. Now, without any further of my ranting, here's chapter 2!

_**Chapter 2: Ace in Hole 1, 2 and 3**_

Lacus glanced down at the communications panel on her command chair aboard the _Eternal_. Yzak had been sending her periodic reports on their situation every two hours or so since they'd set out from the PLANTs, but his latest report was running strangely late.

"What's the matter Lacus?"

Lacus snapped out of her thoughts and glanced up over her shoulder to see Kira who had come up behind her.

"You seem a bit distracted, are you alright?" he asked softly.

"I...I'm fine Kira." Lacus said, giving a reassuring smile before her face darkened a bit as she looked back down at the communication panel, "It's Yzak. His report's running late, and he's usually so punctual."

"Don't worry so much Lacus; I'm sure it's nothing. He probably just had to check something, or maybe it's-"

"Ma'am, Admiral! There's been an explosion in the _**Voltaire**_'s Hangar!"

"What!?" Lacus and Kira cried out at the same time, their attention immediately turning to the bridge screen.

They looked on in horror as the Hangar Hatch of the _**Voltaire**_ was blown open and four of the five prototype Mobile Suits flew out of it. The moment he saw one of them charging a weapon, Kira turned on his heel and rushed towards the elevator.

"I'm launching," He yelled at the launch bay operator as the elevator doors open, "Make sure the Freedom is ready by the time I'm there."

"Yes sir." The Operator said in response.

"Be careful Kira." Lacus said her voice filled with worry.

"Don't worry, I will be." Kira replied with a gentle smile as the elevator closed.

Turning back to the front of the bridge, Lacus glanced out the window and looked on as Dearka launched in his ZAKU and tried to fight the prototypes.

"I'm so sorry...if only I'd..." Lacus said, a few tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly brushed them off and addressed the crew, "_**Eternal**_, all crew members to battle stations! Once the Freedom has launched, have Shinn launch in the Destiny, Luna in the Impulse, and have three GOUFs launch for support."

"Yes ma'am." The comm. Officer replied, beginning to use the intercom to issue the orders, while the launch bay operator radioed for said suits to be lined up for launch.

* * *

"Keheheh, that you Yzak?" Haze laughed over an open frequency from his Epyon.

He received no response as the Tallgeese III rushed towards him and his fellow traitors, a small white handle popping out from a hole on the end of the shield mounted on its left shoulder. Reaching its right hand around to grip the handle, it pulled it out of the hole as a blazing pink beam erupted from it. As it neared the Epyon with its beam saber, the Hyaku Shiki rushed in front of it, it's own golden-coloured beam saber drawn. As the beams clashed in an explosion of blazing colors, Robert opened up an open frequency to mock Yzak.

"Hey there Yzak, how're you still alive? I'm pretty sure Haze shot you right in the chest!"

From in the cockpit of the Tallgeese III, Yzak had to take his hand off the controls for one moment to put some pressure on the gaping hole in his gut, which continued to leak blood. At this point, if he were to look down he'd have sworn he was wearing a ZAFT Red Uniform. After putting some pressure on his wound, he resumed full concentration on fighting Robert.

"You think that was enough to kill me?! Guess again you bastard!"

Pushing forward on the thrust control, the Tallgeese III responded as the large thrusters on its back popped open into a three-tiered form, letting the maximum thrust be engaged. The Hyaku Shiki was quickly pushed back by the increased pressure exerted by the Tallgeese.

"D-Damn it!" Robert swore from his cockpit as he desperately pushed his own controls forward, but the Hyaku Shiki's maximum thrust just couldn't stand up to that of the Tallgeese's as it began to angle it's blade to try to break through the Hyaku Shiki's defences.

"I've got you now trai-" Yzak was cut short in his declaration of victory as he coughed up a clump of blood and his wound throbbed uncontrollably.

Forced to let go of the controls to put pressure on the wound as he doubled over in pain, Yzak could barely look up at the screen as the Tallgeese III's thrust rapidly decreased. Seeing the Tallgeese letting up, Robert took his chance and the Hyaku Shiki rapidly thrust forward, putting more and more pressure on the Tallgeese III, Yzak barely able to defend himself with only one hand working the controls.

"You might be surviving that gunshot for the moment, but now I'll be sure to send you to hell!" Robert yelled over the open channel.

The Hyaku Shiki suddenly thrust backwards, leaving the Tallgeese III to stumble forward as it rapidly boosted behind it, beam saber armed to stab through its cockpit.

"No!" Yzak yelled in desperation once he realized what had happened.

Using one of the Tallgeese III's thrusters, Yzak spun the unit around, managing to use its shield to block the saber, though it knocked him backwards through the empty space and left him wide open as the Hyaku Shiki bolted forward, now holding it's beam saber in a reverse grip as it raised the blade high before thrusting it down to pierce the front of the Tallgeese's cockpit. Yzak could just barely look up as the glowing yellow blade of death bore down at him. Just as he closed his eyes, he could make out a bright green flash, followed by a yellow one and the sound of an explosion and then a clank. Opening his eyes, Yzak saw the Hyaku Shiki's beam saber floating in front of the screen, having been the source of the clank sound as it bounced harmlessly off the Tallgeese's armor. Looking further out, he could see the Hyaku Shiki moving away from him, smoke and sparks coming from its destroyed right hand. It's head was turned off to Yzak's left, so he turned to see what exactly had saved him when his comm. Unit turned on as it received an incoming signal on a friendly frequency.

"Come in Tallgeese III, this is the Strike Freedom, do you copy?"

"K-Ki-Kira?" Using what little strength he had left, Yzak moved his arm to press the comm. Button in, opening a channel with the Freedom, "This...this is Joule Squad Commander, Yzak Joule..."

"Yzak! Good to hear you, what happened?!" Kira replied as Yzak saw the Freedom appear before him, separating him and Dearka from the traitors.

"It-it was," Yzak gave out a harsh cough that came with blood before he continued, "that security team that came along with us..."

"It was Zex?!" Kira exclaimed, surprised at the betrayal.

"No-he wasn't in on it, just the others..." he paused as he gave another cough, "Haze Yuki seems to be the leader, he's piloting the Epyon."

"...and what about everyone aboard the _**Voltaire**_?" Kira asked slowly.

"Zex was shot dead, and they thought that they did the same to me. I've got Shiho here with me, no serious wounds, just a bump on the head, she's unconscious." Another loud, bloody cough, "Dearka hid out and launched after them in his ZAKU, but it couldn't match the prototypes...I'm not sure of his-"

"I'm fine." Dearka's voice suddenly came over the comm., "But my ZAKU can't fight. There's no other survivors Admiral, they killed everyone they could and then blew up the ship. It's just the three of us."

"Alright..." Kira said gravely, turning his attention to the traitors, the only sound coming from Yzak now being the occasional cough.

The Freedom spread its wings and advanced slightly on the traitors, who had waited rather patiently since his arrival.

"Haze, Robert, Cam, Ami, why are you doing this?"

There was silence for a few moments before laughter erupted over the open comm. Frequency.

"Keheheheheheheheh, you want to know why we're doing this?" Haze's voice came over the comm., "Well, I've already explained it to Yzak, so ask him, if any of you are still alive after this!"

The Epyon suddenly engaged it's thrusters, advancing rapidly on the Freedom. In response, the Freedom reached around it's back, drawing one of its beam sabers which it raised to attack the Epyon with. As the beam saber came close to it, the Epyon raised it's right arm, two short red beams erupting from the golden claws on its wrist, blocking the beam saber.

"Keheheh, let's have some fun, Freedom!"

Another set of short beam blades erupted from the claws on the Epyon's left arm, which in moved back before thrusting forward to try and stab the Freedom's chest cannon with. Kira quickly reached around and pulled out its second beam saber in a reverse grip, blocking the claws.

"So, you're Haze huh? I've heard about you." Kira said over the open channel.

"Really? What an honor!" Haze replied, "And by that, I mean I could care less if you've heard about me you little shit!"

The Epyon suddenly engaged it's thrusters, blasting downward as it disengaged it's combat with the Freedom. As Kira flipped his one beam saber around into a normal grip, he noticed a bright red glow coming from below. Jetting backwards, he just barely evaded some kind of weapon that glowed with a burning red color, similar to a GOUF's heat rod, though this one was spiked rather than smooth like a GOUF's. The spiked heat rod rapidly retracted down below, and when he looked down Kira saw that it had come from the small shield on the Epyon's left arm.

"Keheheh, though I really must thank you Yamato, for this fancy new Mobile Suit!"

"Don't thank me, I'll be taking it back in a moment!" Kira announced as the Freedom thrust downwards towards the Epyon.

It's beam sabers stretched out to the sides, Kira swung them forward as he neared the Epyon, which grabbed a black handle extending from the back of its shield. Swinging it around, it plugged the butt of the handle into its back, plugging it into something. Swinging the handle back around, it erupted into a blaze of green energy that blocked Kira's strikes as it formed into the largest beam saber Kira had ever seen. Looking at the handle of the weapon, he could see a cord extending around to the back of the Epyon.

"Keheheh, what do you think of the Epyon's ultimate weapon Yamato?! The Hyper Beam Sword, powered directly by the Epyon's Generator!" Haze announced as he swung the sword forward, knocking Kira back.

Not missing a beat, Haze advanced on the Freedom, raising the Beam Sword before swinging it down on the Freedom, which blocked the powerful sword using its twin beam sabers in a cross block.

"You think those little things can stand up to the Epyon's Sword! Fool! Here's a taste of real power!"

Pushing against the Freedom with the beam sword, the Epyon was actually beginning to break through the Freedom's inferior beam sabers using the raw power of the sword. If it continued, it would be like the sabers weren't eve there.

"Unlike you though, I've got other weapons!" Kira yelled out.

"Oh crap!" Haze shouted in surprise he remembered what the Freedom was known for. Having more weapons than any other Mobile Suit.

The Freedom's wings opened, showing the eight blue wing blades, which suddenly separated from the frame of the wings. The Super D.R.A.G.O.O.N mobile turrets, Haze thought in frustration as he disengaged from the Freedom. The Epyon jetted around in space as beam after beam of green energy was fired at it from the D.R.A.G.O., it's large wing-shaped thrusters apparently having an output almost equal to that of the Strike Freedom, though Haze found himself unable to mount an offensive through the continual omni-directional fire. Haze was barely able to bring up the Epyon's shield to block a sudden beam saber strike from the Freedom amidst the continual fire.

"Haze, hang on!" Robert's voice announced over their friendly frequency.

The Hyaku Shiki advanced towards the Strike Freedom to try and aid Haze, but was cut short in its movement as a quartet of small crafts moved into its path. Looking in the direction the crafts had flown, Robert looked on as the small lead craft folded up as two others unfolded and combined around it, forming a Mobile Suit body. The fourth craft detached into two parts, a cockpit which flew off on its own, while the large remainder, which appeared to be a large pair of cannon barrels with two large thrusters between them, attached itself via laser guides to the back of the formed mobile suit. The Mobile Suit's Variable Phase Shirt Armor engaged, turning the suit a mix of black and white with green highlights. The large cannon barrels rapidly flipped under its arms, a handle flipped out on the sides of the cannons, which the suit grabbed. It quickly unleashed twin beams of glowing red and blue energy that blazed towards the Hyaku Shiki, though the beams simply reflected off its golden armor, blasting back at the suit that had fired them in the first place. Flipping it's cannons back into place, the suit's large thrusters engaged, sending it rocketing down and under the returning energy beams.

"Hah, a heavy weapons user huh? Bad choice of opponent pal!" Robert announced on an open comm. Channel as he rocketed towards the new enemy.

In response to the advance, a panel that ran up the length of one of the cannons opened up, allowing the suit to draw a long white rod that ignited with bright pink energy at one end that jetted out in every direction.

"Oh yeah, well if you like my cannons so much, try the beam spike!" a female voice replied over the open channel.

"Oh ho, now I know who you are!" Robert stated even as the beam spike clashed with his beam saber, "You're Lunamaria Hawke! Pilot of the Variable Mobile Weapon Impulse!"

"Gee, I didn't know I had a reputation." Luna replied as she drew out another beam spike and stabbed it at the Hyaku Shiki, which was forced to retreat due to its lack of second hand.

"We make it our business to know all about our enemy." Robert replied proudly.

"Well then, you know that the stolen Abyss from two years ago was taken out like this!" Luna announced as she reversed the grip on the right beam spike, reeling it back before tossing it at the Hyaku Shiki, which was slow to react, but was saved by the timely intervention of what seemed to be a beam axe held in the hand of the Sazabi which sliced the beam spike in two.

"Heh, thanks for the save Ami..." Robert said with a sigh of relief, he'd actually been caught off guard by the sudden toss.

"Thank me later; we still have to deal with her." Ami replied, turning the Sazabi to face the Impulse.

"No." Cam's voice came over the comm., "I'll help out against the Impulse, go help Haze Ami."

"Why don't you go help him?" Ami asked in return.

"Your Sazabi is equipped with D.R.A.G.O. right? You'd be best suited to helping fight the Freedom."

"...Good point." Ami agreed before moving away from the Impulse and towards where the Epyon was still fighting a stalemate with the Freedom. Kira couldn't quite manage to get a hit in on Haze, and Haze was too busy defending against the Freedom's infinite attacks to mount his own offensive.

While Ami moved to help Haze, the red shield covering the Wing Zero's left arm opened up and a white handle emerged. Grabbing it in the right hand, Cam ignited the beam saber before engaging the Wing Zero's powerful twin boosters, blasting it towards Luna's Impulse at speeds that matched the Strike Freedom or Epyon. Rearing back the saber to stab the Impulse through the chest, Luna was barely able to raise the Impulse's Beam Spike in time to block the Wing Zero's stab. As she defended against the Wing Zero, Luna saw with horror as the Hyaku Shiki rose above it, it's beam saber held in a reverse grip like when Robert had been about to deal a killing blow to Yzak a few moments ago. As it thrust the saber over the Wing Zero's head, Luna didn't close her eyes like Yzak did, but instead she smiled when the two units were forced to move away from her as an angry voice cried out over an open comm. Channel.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

As this cry came, the two stolen units backed away as an Anti-Ship Beam Blade cut its way between them and Luna, held in the grip of a blue and white mobile suit that had large red wings that emitted giant rainbow-coloured wings as it flew by them before it turned around and returned to float beside the Impulse, the rainbow-wings vanishing as the solid red wings closed. The latest suit to appear raised its large blue sword to point at the Wing Zero menacingly.

"Thanks for the save Shinn." Luna said happily over the ZAFT comm. Channel.

"No way I'd let you ever get hurt Luna." Shinn replied, "Now-" he shifted over to an open channel, "Let's take care of these traitors."

"You can try it!" Robert announced.

The Hyaku Shiki deposited it's beam saber in the recharge slot located behind its rear skirt armor before reaching up behind its shoulder as a black handle emerged from one of the short blades over its thrusters. Gripping the handle, it pulled the blade off of the thrusters, the blade extending to the same length as the Destiny's Arondight Sword. As it brought the sword up in front of it, a beam ignited along the edge.

"So, he's got an anti-ship sword too..." Shinn whispered under his breath.

"Let's go, Destiny!"

The Hyaku Shiki boosted forward with its sword held high as it swung the blade down on the Destiny, which raised its own sword to block it, sparks of beam energy flying in every direction as the beam edges met. As the Destiny and Hyaku Shiki clashed, the Wing Zero raised its left arm up, aiming its large Twin Buster Rifle at the Destiny, waiting for an opening, but was forced to jet backwards as two red and blue blasts of energy shot by it. Turning, Cam saw Luna targeting him with the Impulse's own Twin Cannons.

"I'll be your opponent now!" Luna announced over the open comm.

"Tch, fine girl. If you want to die that badly, I'll send you to hell!"

The Wing Zero brought its rifle to bear on Luna, a glow coming from each barrel. Suddenly a red and blue blast of energy shot forth from one of the barrels, which Luna managed to avoid, though she was rocked around in her cockpit as another blast destroyed the Impulse's right leg, the blast having come from the other barrel of the Twin Buster Rifle.

"How do you like that?!" Cam mocked her, "My Wing Zero can fire blasts just as powerful as yours, and I can increase the rapid fire by alternating between the barrels!"

"Luna!" Shinn yelled in anger.

Quickly raising the Destiny's leg, Shinn kicked out against the Hyaku Shiki, putting some distance between them before he spread the Destiny's red wings, rainbow-coloured energy erupting from them as the Wings of Light rocketed him towards the Wing Zero.

"I'll kill you!" he screamed over the comm. at Cam.

"Damn it!" Cam cursed as he saw the Destiny blazing towards him.

Lowering the Twin Buster Rifle, Cam turned the Wing Zero to face the oncoming Destiny, a panel on either side of its inner shoulders opening up to reveal a large Gatling gun. As the barrels began to spin, green blasts of energy flew out towards the Destiny, though they all missed, hitting nothing but after images left by the Destiny's Wings of Light. As Cam desperately tried following the Destiny with his Gatling guns, Shinn closed in on him, raising up the Arondight for a downward slash which was unfortunately blocked as the Wing Zero's left shoulder plate opened up, showing a protruding white handle that was grabbed with its right hand, drawing the beam saber to block the Destiny's sword. Using the Destiny's superior blade, Shinn swung downwards, sending the Wing Zero flying downwards before reaching its left hand under its arm to grab the olive green handle of the beam cannon that flipped under its arm, aiming the barrel at the recovering Wing Zero, which raised its own cannon up to match the Destiny. As both Mobile Suits fired their cannons, the blue and red energy beams met in between them, the clash of raw energy creating a massive explosion that Shinn couldn't see through for a moment, until he rapidly docked the cannon and raised the Destiny's left hand up to cover its body, the blue energy shield emanating from the back of its hand just in time to block another beam attack that dispersed the smoke from the explosion.

"Did you forget I had two cannons you idiot?!" Cam mocked as the Wing Zero rushed at the Destiny, its beam saber still drawn.

Having been knocked back by the surprise blast, the destiny wasn't fully prepared for the rapid approach of the Wing Zero, and as it tried to block the oncoming saber attack, Shinn found the Arondight sword knocked out of the Destiny's hand, leaving him defenceless. As the Wing Zero reeled its arm back to prepare for a stab, Shinn reached up and pulled the beam saber off of the Destiny's left shoulder, using it to parry the incoming stab. As Shinn clashed with Cam, he failed to noticed Robert rushing at him with the Hyaku Shiki's sword positioned to slash him in half until a new red mobile suit appeared behind the Destiny, blocking the Hyaku Shiki's sword with its own. Looking at it, Robert clearly saw it was the Impulse, though now it was red and had a pair of anti-ship swords as opposed to black with twin laser cannons.

"Da-damn it, when did you have a chance to change equipment?!" he cursed over the open frequency.

"Simple, when you were distracted trying to attack Shinn." Luna replied.

As the Destiny and Impulse defended themselves back-to-back against the stolen suits, they were relieved when the stolen Suits backed off as a series of rapid-fire green energy shots came at them above. Looking up, Cam and Robert saw two GOUFs above the Destiny and Impulse, the reinforcements Lacus had ordered out.

* * *

The Epyon continued to evade the Strike Freedom's omni-directional fire, Haze cursing every moment he was unable to fight back. He quickly brought up the Epyon's beam sword to block a sudden beam saber attack from the Freedom on the right, pushing him back before thrusting out with its left arm, loosing the heat rod at him, though it was easily evaded before Haze drew it back in a quickly evaded several Super D.R.A.G.O.O.N shots.

"Hey boss, need some help?" Ami asked jokingly over a friendly frequency.

"Tch, I'd rather not need it, but as it is I'm at a disadvantage. Sure, I'll take you up on it this time." Haze said bitterly.

"Roger."

The Freedom turned as the Sazabi entered its range, the upper part of its thrusters opening up and releasing six small cylindrical D.R.A.G.O.. They flew towards Kira, circling him as they fired green energy beams at him, which he easily evaded before having three of his Super D.R.A.G.O. position themselves and fire beams back at the Sazabi, though they left little more than burn marks as they hit its heavy armor. In response, the Sazabi's D.R.A.G.O. flew at the Freedom, firing from six different angles though Kira still managed to evade them, but only barely managed to bring up his right beam saber to block a strike from the Epyon, which had flown up while he'd been dodging.

"Keheheh, having trouble now that it's two to one Admiral?" Haze taunted.

Kira gave no answer, but instead pushed back on the Epyon as its Super D.R.A.G.O. flew around the Epyon, firing beams to try and make it into a Swiss cheese Gundam, though the Epyon quickly backtracked to avoid the blasts. After getting away from the Epyon Kira flew towards the Sazabi, trying to get past its armor with a close range attack, evading fire from its D.R.A.G.O. as they positioned themselves in front of it in defence. As Kira evaded the Sazabi's defensive fire, Haze flew up behind him, raising the Hyper Beam Sword to cleave the Freedom in half. Quickly turning around, Kira raised the Freedom's left arm, a beam shield generating from the red device on its forearm, blocking the sword.

"Got you now!" Ami yelled.

As Kira defended against the Epyon, Ami rushed at him from behind, the Sazabi's beam axe drawn. The energy from the axe suddenly increased, converting the blade into a large two sided sword, which it poised to stab through the Freedom.

"Now you die Freedom!" Haze exclaimed in victory.

"No, I refuse to allow you to get away with this!" Kira stated defiantly.

Within the cockpit of the Freedom, Kira experienced a vision of a seed floating in front of him. The seed burst into a thousand glowing fragments as it hit some invisible ground, and at the same moment Kira's eyes became diluted. His irises lost their shine and his pupils became highly focused. At the same moment, the Freedom's twin beam rifles dropped from their holsters on its waist, allowing its rail guns to circle forward, opening up and firing twin concussive blasts that knocked the Epyon away from the Freedom. Quickly closing the rail guns, the Freedom flew downwards, evading the Sazabi's sword as it docked its beam sabers. Grabbing the beam rifles, Kira had the Super D.R.A.G.O. position themselves around him, having them float around the wing frames they were normally docked at. Aiming the beam rifles and rail guns at the Epyon and Sazabi, Kira unleashed the full power of the Strike Freedom at once, firing all eight Super D.R.A.G.O., both beam rifles, rail guns and the powerful cannon in its chest. The massive barrage forced Haze and Ami to dodge in opposite directions. Docking the Super D.R.A.G.O. and beam rifles, Kira drew the Freedom's beam sabers as he flew at the Sazabi, getting in close to it before Ami could fully understand it.

"So-So fast!" was all she could say as the Freedom sliced off the Sazabi's right arm.

Before it could take off the left, Haze attacked it with the Epyon's heat rod before advancing with its Hyper Beam Saber.

"Get it together Ami!" Haze ordered.

"R-Right." Ami said shaking her head to get over the shock of the Freedom's speed.

Advancing on the Freedom, the Epyon raised its sword to attack, but the Freedom actually moved in close, raising its beam saber to purposely collide with the Hyper Beam Sword before it could be swung down before slicing at the Epyon's arms, though it quickly backtracked to avoid damage.

"Damn it! Did his skill level actually go up just now?" Haze asked himself.

The Freedom suddenly flew at him, but its beam sabers pierced an early target as Ami positioned the Sazabi to take the attack through its oversized shoulder plates.

"Now Haze!" Ami cried.

"Keheheh got it!" Haze laughed happily.

The Epyon flew under the Sazabi before flying upwards to try and cut the Freedom in half, though it pushed away from the Sazabi as the Epyon flew by, doing a back flip to get into a horizontal position before jetting forward at the passing Epyon, a quick swipe of its beam saber cutting its right leg off. Twisting around, the Freedom kicked off of the Sazabi, knocking it backwards, before continuing its attack on the Epyon which used its sword to block the attack, though it was blown back when Kira disengaged his attack, flipped around, and kicked the Epyon square in the chest before abruptly stopping its attack.

"...what's the matter, aren't you going to keep attacking?!" Haze yelled out as he rushed forward and attacked with the Epyon's sword, though Kira easily evaded it by shifting to the side and moving back slightly.

"No, it's over." Kira replied simply, his eyes returning to their normal state.

"Over? OVER?! You think it's over?!" Haze screamed.

"...Yes. I've just gotten word that your two other conspirators have been defeated. Look."

The Strike Freedom raised its beam saber, pointing off to the left where the two GOUFs along with the Destiny and Impulse were bringing the Hyaku Shiki and Wing Zero towards them, the GOUFs gripping the stolen units to stop them from fleeing.

"Ami! Ami, attack, you can still fight!" Haze desperately cried out.

"...sorry, I can't." She replied.

Turning around, Haze saw that a third GOUF had its beam sword pointed at the Sazabi's head, its head rod wrapped around its remaining arm.

"Face it, your theft has been dealt with." Kira concluded as the other defeated traitors were brought to them.

"...fine...this really didn't turn out like I thought it would...everyone...plan E22." Haze said slowly.

"E22?" Kira questioned in confusion.

The Epyon sudden reared its beam sword around to one side before swinging it around in a circle, the blade extending as it did so, forcing Kira to back off along with Luna, Shinn and the GOUF pilots guarding Robert and Cam, who had apparently been expecting this dashed down under the blade the moment they were released, while the sword sliced through the third GOUF guarding Ami. The stolen units converged on each other and turned to face the ZAFT forces.

"...you think this changes anything?" Kira asked.

"You've lost, give it up!" Luna exclaimed.

"Return the stolen Mobile Suits now." Shinn stated.

The only reply that came for a few moments was Haze's laughter.

"Keheheh, I'll grant you that we've lost this battle, but I assure you the war is far from over!"

"What are you talking about?" Kira asked, "You're caught."

"Tsk, Tsk Admiral. Did no one teach you not to count your chickens before they've hatched?"

As Haze said this, four powerful green energy blasts came from seemingly nowhere, forcing the ZAFT forces to scatter. Zooming in the direction of the blasts, Luna saw what appeared to be the Orb Union's _**Kusanagi**_ Ship!

"Hey, is that the _**Kusanagi**_ from Orb?!" Luna asked in surprise when she saw it approaching.

Zooming in on the ship himself, Kira looked it over before concluding that it was not actually his sister's flagship.

"No, it's not. It's definitely of the same _**Izumo**_-Class, but it looks a bit different, and I'm not familiar with the coloration..." Kira replied.

"Keheheh, like it? It's my personal ship, the _**Tsukuyomi**_!" Haze explained.

The approaching ship in question was an _**Izumo**_-Class Battleship, the same as Orb Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha's Flagship the _**Kusanagi**_. Unlike the _**Kusanagi**_ which was coloured in a multitude of blues, the _**Tsukuyomi**_ was primarily black where the _**Kusanagi**_ was light blue, and red where it was a darker blue. The Ship continued to fire from its Gottfried Cannons positioned above and below the catapult, keeping the ZAFT forces away from the stolen units.

"Now that our ride is here, I do believe we'll be taking our leave." Haze stated as the Epyon turned around and began flying towards the _**Tsukuyomi**_, followed quickly by his teammates.

As he evaded the cannon fire from the Gottfrieds, Kira began to try and move closer to the fleeing thieves, but was stopped by a sudden transmission from the _**Eternal**_.

"Kira, don't go after them." Lacus' voice ordered Kira over the comm.

"But Lacus, we can't let them get away with those Suits!" Kira protested.

"We have other concerns right now. Please Kira. We can always get them back, but if we don't hurry..."

"Yzak!" Kira realized, having forgotten about the white haired commander in the heat of the battle.

The Freedom immediately turned around and began heading back to the wreak of the _**Voltaire**_. The _**Tsukuyomi**_ ceased firing as the stolen units reached it and entered. Turning, the ship began to retreat from the area.

"We're not letting them get away are we?" Shinn exclaimed, "Let me go after them, I can still catch up to them!"

"No Shinn!" Kira replied as he flew away from the _**Tsukuyomi**_, Luna and Shinn beginning to follow after them, "Even if you could catch them, there's no telling if they have any other Mobile Suits on board...I won't let you chase them alone...for now, let's just...go back."

* * *

Within the cockpit of the Tallgeese III, Yzak gazed through teary eyes at the battle going on outside. Glancing after them as the battle began to move away from him, he grunted as he tried to grip the controls to try and pursue the thieves with the others, but his hands quickly bolted to his mouth and stomach as he coughed up more blood and his wound pulsed in pain. As his coughing fit ended, Yzak leaned back in the seat, glaring out into space until he heard a sound to his left. Glancing down, he saw Shiho stirring. As she opened her eyes, she looked up and saw Yzak, a confused look on her face.

"Co-Commander?" she whispered, her eyes wandering down to the red lower half of Yzak's uniform he was covering with his arm, her eyes snapping open as she bolted up, "You're hurt! Commander, is that all your blood?!"

"Ye-yeah-" Yzak replied before giving out a bloody cough, "I'm not sure how I'm even still alive..."

"We-we've got to stop the bleeding!" Shiho exclaimed before turning around, only now seeming to notice where they were, "Why...why are we in a Mobile Suit?"

"Haze..."

"Haze...?" Shiho looked confused before she seemed to remember something, her hand bolting to the back of her head, feeling a large lump, "That bastard knocked me out! What happened Commander?!"

"Those so-called Security Forces...they took the new units...except this one...I tried to fight them off but..."

Yzak's voice slowed as his vision before more clouded. He could see Shiho speaking, but couldn't make out what she was saying, her voice seemed to be getting quieter and quieter. After a moment she seemed to get flustered and panicky, grabbing Yzak by his shoulders. He thought he could feel her shaking him, but he wasn't actually sure. As his vision became darker, he looked past Shiho and saw the glow of the Freedom's engines as it moved back towards them, no sign of gunfire.

_Did we win?_ Yzak thought, _That's...good..._

And then for the second time today, he found his vision fading to utter black.

* * *

Alright, Chapter 2 DONE! Y'know, sometimes I think that my writing might be too clustered or maybe overly descriptive, what do you think? My buddy CyberSlayer128's stories aren't big on the details, but they're still pretty good and he gets tons of reviews! Maybe most people just find my style too bothersome to read through...Oh well, I don't care, at least I get a kick out of writing these stories! So, if you like them and have read this far through, please review so that I know exactly what you like and dislike about the story. Anyway, until next time, see ya!


	3. Recovery and Education

Okay, here's Chapter 3! I probably won't be writing all the chapters so close to each other, but I've got nothing else to do right now, so I decided to write another chapter!...Yeah, that's about it. Also, thanks to Tynuccia for the excellent review! As well as HushedLips, Roxybaby08 and CyberSlayer128 for their reviews.

_**Chapter 3: Recovery and Education**_

Yzak looked at the blurred shapes that rushed by him. He wasn't sure how long it had been like this, but for a while now he had been seeing things, without really seeing them. He looked up as black blurs rushed along with him down a white passage. He wasn't sure what was happening, everything he 'saw' was just starting to blur into each other. Nothing made sense. Or maybe he just couldn't make sense of it. He wasn't sure how many times these moments of 'seeing' came, but he thought it happened maybe five times. Then all he saw again was black.

When he opened his eyes again, he was certain all he would see were the same black blobs on white backgrounds. But as he strained his eyes open, he managed to make out the details of where he was. Looking at the opposite wall of he could see a couple of comfy looking chairs against the wall. Off to the right of the chairs, his left, there was a small TV suspended in the corner of ceiling, next to a large window with the blinds drawn, letting golden sunlight stream into the room. The room itself was painted in shades of white and tan, giving it a comfortable if slightly stuff atmosphere. Yzak himself noticed he was lying down in a bed with plain white sheets and a large plastic banister on either side. It definitely wasn't his room. In fact it looked like a-

"Hospital Room..." Yzak said quietly, noticing how dry his throat was.

"Oh, you're awake." A soft voice came from his right, alerting Yzak to a presence he hadn't noticed before now.

Turning to the right side of his bed, Yzak saw a young man with messy brown hair and a gentle face dressed in a black, red-lined shirt with gold buckles around the shoulders and stomach. In his hands he held an apple that he was pealing with a knife. It took a moment for him to register in Yzak's mind, but once he did he mentally slapped himself for not realizing who he was.

"Admiral Yamato!" Yzak said bolting up, before a sharp pain in his side sent him back down into his bed, his right arm wrapped around his left side as it ached uncontrollably.

"Now now, don't work yourself up." Kira said calmly, as he stood up and placed a hand gently on Yzak's chest to make sure he didn't bolt up again before offering the apple he had now finished peeling, "Now eat up, you've got to be starving, you've been out long enough."

"Huh?" Yzak mumbled as he took the apple while Kira sat back down. Biting into the apple, Yzak chewed his first bite for a moment. The juice let out by the fruit moistened his throat, but something was nagging at him. Then it hit him as he bolted up again, "How long was I out!?" Yzak yelled before throwing himself back into his pillows in pain.

"About a week." Kira said again pressing against Yzak's chest to keep him down, "Now stop bolting up like that, you'll reopen your wound if you do."

"...What happened to the prototypes?" Yzak asked after taking a calming breath, managing not to bolt up this time.

"They got away with all but the Tallgeese III that you tried to fight them in." Kira said matter-of-factly.

"...I see..." Yzak said slowly, his voice heavy with shame at his failure. Then his eyes widened as something else crossed his mind, "What about Shiho and Dearka?!" he exclaimed, almost bolting up again but managing to keep himself down.

"Don't worry. Dearka's fine. A bit shaken up after his ZAKU got beaten practically by itself. As for Shiho-"

"COMMANDER!"

Yzak turned towards the door just as his vision was obscured by long brown hair as he felt a pair of arms wrap around his neck, embracing him tightly.

"Ah, what the-Shiho?" Yzak managed to get out despite the iron grip she had on his neck.

As Shiho's grip loosened, Yzak looked at her face and was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Commander! I was so-so worried-that you weren't going to wake up!" she said between sobs.

"Co-come on Shiho, if you keep crying like that you're going to make me start..." Yzak said with a barely noticeable blush at the thought of being brought to tears.

"Ah, sorry sir." Shiho said as she wiped her tears off, "I'm just so glad to see you awake."

"Kinda seems a bit wrong that I was here when you woke up." Kira said as he stood up from his chair and started walking towards the door.

"What are you talking about sir?" Yzak asked as Kira reached the door, which opened when the sensor detected his presence.

"I was only here peeling that apple for about 10 minutes Yzak." Kira explained with a smile, "Shiho meanwhile has been waiting by your bed for you to wake up almost every moment since the doctors said she could after they looked at her head. It took me a while just to convince her go get some lunch while I looked after you for a few minutes. So that's why it kinda seems wrong to me that you woke up during the 10 minutes she wasn't here. Anyway, I'm going to go grab some lunch myself, and tell the others that you're awake."

Taking his leave of the room, Kira continued down the hall towards an elevator. As the door slid shut, Yzak looked back to Shiho, who had taken a seat in the chair Kira had previously been in, was blushing rather intensely. An awkward silence dominated the room for several moments before someone spoke again.

"So...you've been watching over me while I was out of it?" Yzak asked.

"Ah, yeah..." Shiho said, still blushing, her hands gripped into fists planted firmly on her legs.

"And what about you..."

"What?" Shiho asked before her blush deepened as Yzak reached his hand up and started feeling the back of her head, "Co-Commander?"

"Haze hurt you, didn't he?" Yzak stated.

"Umm...not really..." Shiho said, only getting redder by the moment. Reaching up with her left hand, she cupped it around Yzak's hand and guided it to the very back of her head. Feeling around, he could easily make out the bump where Haze had knocked Shiho out.

"You didn't get hurt anywhere else did you?" Yzak asked.

"No...out of the three of us, I probably got hurt the least. Even Dearka wound up more hurt than me after he got some cuts and scrapes when his ZAKU was damaged..." Shiho replied.

"That's good...he can take it." Yzak said with a relieved sigh.

"An-And you don't think I can?!" Shiho exclaimed, her face obviously showing her embarrassment.

"That's not what I meant." Yzak said with a smile.

"Then...what did you mean?" Shiho asked in a whisper.

"I dunno...I just think that if you got hurt I'd feel...worse somehow than with Dearka." Yzak explained, closing his eyes and resting his head deeper into the pillow.

"Commander?" Shiho asked, her blush dying down but her voice filled with worry.

"It's alright. I'm just feeling tired...I'm going to take a little nap..."

"Alright Commander..." Shiho said as Yzak nodded off. When she was fairly certain he was asleep, she added, "I'll be here."

* * *

Haze sat in the command chair of the _**Tsukuyomi**_, twirling about in the swivel chair like a kid who had just gotten a new toy. The bridge crew occasionally glanced at him with odd looks on their face. Suddenly, a beeping came from the communication officer's console. Tapping a few commands, the officer turned to Haze, who was still fooling around in the chair.

"Umm...Captain?" the officer said hesitantly, though it got Haze's attention as he stopped twisting about and turned to face the officer.

"What is it?" He asked, annoyance evident on his face.

"We're receiving a call from Command sir." The officer explained.

"Oh? Well it would be terrible not to answer. Put it on the main screen." Haze commanded.

"Yes sir." The officer replied, tapping in a few commands.

The front screen of the bridge suddenly changed from showing empty space to displaying a middle-aged man. His face was well worn and utterly serious. He had a few wrinkles as a sign of age, and his dark grey hair had begun receding. Still, his appearance gave the impression that he could beat most men in a fight. Seeing Haze in the command seat caused the man's face to change from total seriousness to something between a cross of seriousness, surprise and curiosity.

"Haze, what the hell are you doing there? Where's Zexion?" the man asked.

"Head Minister Light, good to see you too." Haze said grinning, his narrow eyes opened just a bit to show his dull blue eyes.

"Answer the damn question Haze." Minister Light asked again, anger seeping into his voice.

"Unfortunately, Ex-Captain Seer turned traitor on us." Haze said, keeping his grin.

"Seer? A traitor? I find that hard to believe." The minister replied.

"Sorry to report, but shortly before the operation, he came to myself, Ami, Robert and Cam, and asked us, in the belief that we were more loyal to him than the cause, to join him in leaving the organization. Of course we didn't go along with him." Haze explained.

"I see...and what did you-"

"I killed him but of course." Haze said with a laugh.

"...alright then, _Captain_ Haze Yuki-"

Several crew members gave out groans at what was apparently only just now an official announcement.

"-did you succeed in acquiring the new ZAFT prototype mobile suits?" Minister Light asked.

"All but one, due to my...removal of Zex." Haze stated.

"Good...did you get the red one with the wings you wanted?"

"Keheheh, yes I did sir, thank you for asking."

"Which one was left behind?"

"The Tallgeese sir, but I think we may have been given false info regarding it." Haze said, his eyes opening more and his grin lessening.

"How so?"

"In the info we were given the Tallgeese was shown as being a test bed for weapons to be used in a later series of Mass Production Suits. However the Tallgeese was piloted by an enemy pilot for a short time. In that time I observed the suit as having superior thrusters to many others, perhaps the strongest in the group for combat purposes. It also had a shield that appeared similar to the Epyon's, though I'm unsure of whether it had a heat rod or not, and a beam cannon that had a difference in both appearance and power to the one it was equipped with in the blueprints we were given."

"This is troubling news indeed...it means that Clyne may have actually released false information on at least one of the suits. And if she lied about one of the ones being sent to Orb..."

"It could just as easily mean she has more new suits waiting in the wings." Haze finished the thought.

"Yes...Still, at least we have four of them. Bring the suits back for analyze ASAP. Minister Eric Light, over."

The minister's image abruptly vanished from the screen while Haze stood up from the seat. Walking around the strategy simulator, he exited the bridge into the elevator. As the doors closed, he began to laugh. As he voice echoed through the bridge and elevator shaft, the crew members that heard it felt a shiver go up their spine. Exiting on the crew quarters, he floated down the hall until he reached a particular door at the end. As the door opened, he walked into what seemed like a lounge. Ami, Robert and Cam were seated about the room, their attention drawn when they saw Haze enter. Placing his feet firmly on the ground, he stood up and looked at his team.

"So?" Ami asked first as she floated about in the microgravity, "Did the minister call?"

"Yeah." Haze replied.

"And?" Cam asked, as he sat in a corner drinking a can of some soft drink.

"I've been promoted to the Captain of the _**Tsukuyomi**_." Haze explained with his usual grin.

"Con-gratu-lations." Robert said while giving a slow clap from his seat in the middle of the room.

"So Captain," Ami said floating over to Haze and giving him a quick peck on the cheek, "What's our first order of business?"

"Keheheh, simple." Haze stated, genuinely smiling for once as opposed to his usually grin, possibly due to the kiss, "We're going to take the Tsukuyomi back home, let the new suits be analyzed, and then-"

"We start training with them." Robert said with a quick laugh.

"I can't wait to see what the Wing Zero can really do!" Cam exclaimed, hitting his fits together.

"Yeah." Haze agreed, "And when we meet Yamato and his friends again..." Haze said, grinning again.

"We'll show them just why they are fools for siding with the Naturals." Ami said, floating over to Haze as she placed her shoulder against his.

* * *

Yzak's eyes fluttered open fully for the second time for the day. Glancing to his left he could see that it was considerably later than when he'd last been awake. It had been around noon before, but now the sun was setting outside the window. Turning his head over to the right, Yzak's eyes widened a bit when he saw Shiho still sitting there, her head slumped over onto one shoulder as she leaned back into the chair, asleep. Looking at the sleeping girl Yzak felt himself blush for some reason. He'd never actually realized how beautiful she was. Her hair was parted down the middle perfectly framing her delicate features, which were only accentuated by her being asleep. A smile crossed her lips as she slept and Yzak felt his blush deepen as he noticed how much her beauty just seemed to increase as she smiled. For some odd reason he found himself slowly leaning towards her, his vision focused on her smiling lips as he started to outstretch his arm---before it shot back to his chest and he went back to lying in his bed, his face no longer blushing, but his heart beating rapidly.

_What are you doing Yzak?!_ He thought to himself, _Just calm down...what was I thinking...?_

Glancing back over at Shiho, he found the blush returning to his face. He promptly turned away and turned himself over to face away from her. What was it? What was this feeling that was growing in his chest?

**~Earlier That Day~**

Kira walked out of the elevator on the ground floor of the hospital, heading off to the left. Walking further down the hall he found the cafeteria, one table of which was occupied by his friends. Proceeding over to the counter, he ordered a cup of coffee before joining his friends at the table they'd picked out. Pulling out the seat next to Lacus, he bent down and kissed her on the cheek before taking his seat. Raising the cup of coffee he took a sip before lowering it from his mouth, giving the cup an odd look. It tasted fairly good for a cup of coffee from a hospital cafeteria, but once you've tasted the masterpiece of coffee that was a mixture by Andrew Waltfeld, you could never look at coffee the same way again.

"What is it Kira?" Lacus asked when she noticed how her husband was regarding his coffee.

"Oh nothing...I was just missing Mr. Waltfeld's coffee..." Kira replied with a sigh.

"Come on Admiral-" Shinn started in disbelief at how much Kira cared about someone's personal coffee mix, "-I've heard that the Desert Tiger had a thing for coffee, but come on, it can't have been that good."

"You've never tasted it Shinn." Kira said with another sigh.

"Yeah, it was pretty good." Lacus said nostalgically, "He could mix delicious coffee that could suit any person's tastes."

"Anyway..." Kira started, getting a bit saddened at all the talk of the delicious beverage he hadn't had since his last trip to Orb several months ago, "So you guys weren't able to keep Shiho down here for more than ten minutes?"

"Sorry." Dearka replied, "She was definitely hungry, that's for sure. She ate a full meal in just that time, then shot back up there."

"Well, I guess it's for the best since he woke up." Kira said plainly, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Huh, well then I guess it is a good thing she finished quickly..." Luna said, taking a sip of a fountain drink she had.

There was a moment of odd silence as every took a sip of their chosen drinks.

"WHAT?!" Everyone but Kira exclaimed at the same time.

"Yzak's awake!" Luna exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table.

"Yeah, he woke up a few minutes ago." Kira said, "I gave him that apple I took with me, we talked about the theft, then I came back down after Shiho came back."

"So he's awake huh?" Dearka restated the question with a smile.

"Good to know he's okay." Lacus said with a warm smile.

"Do you think we should go up and see him?" Shinn asked.

"No, I think it's best to just leave them alone for a few minutes." Kira said as he took another unsatisfying sip of his coffee.

"What? Why?" Shinn asked looking rather oblivious.

"Same reason I never let you and Luna be." Dearka said with a smile.

"What?" Shinn said, looking confused for a moment before something clicked in his head, "Wait, those two?!"

"Come on Shinn, don't say it like that." Luna said berating him.

"But I...I just can't see it..." Shinn said taking a strong swig of his drink.

"Truth be told..." Lacus started, "I don't think Yzak sees it either."

"Then what's the point in leaving them alone?" Shinn asked.

"Because A) You never know, and B) None of us are done eating anyway." Dearka answered.

"If you say so..." Shinn said, accepting the plan for the moment, if somewhat hesitantly. He was cheered up when Luna gave him a peck on the cheek as he resumed eating.

* * *

The next morning, Yzak woke up feeling an unusual weight on his right side. Glancing down, he saw Shiho draped over the side of his bed, her head on top of her crossed arms fast asleep, soft snores escaping her mouth every few moments. Reaching his hand out, Yzak brushed some stray hairs aside to better show her face, though he quickly retracted his hand again as he caught himself feeling odd like he had the previous night.

_What's wrong with me! She's a soldier! My ally, my friend, but not...I don't even know what I'm thinking!_

As Yzak thought to himself, Shiho began to stir at his side, picking herself up off his bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, good morning Commander!" she said hurriedly when she noticed Yzak was already awake.

"Huh?" Yzak groaned, snapped out of his thoughts as Shiho addressed him, "Ah, good morning Shiho..."

"Did you manage to sleep well?" Shiho asked.

"Yeah...though..." Yzak tried to say something but couldn't manage to get it out.

"What is it sir?"

"Well...were you here all night?"

"Umm...yes sir."

"...I feel kind of bad..."

"What is it sir?! Is your wound hurting?! Let me go get the doctor!" Shiho said beginning to stand up before she was stopped as Yzak suddenly grabbed her by her wrist.

"No that's not what I mean." Yzak said, not yelling for once as he let Shiho's arm go as she returned to her seat, "I meant I feel bad since you can't have gotten a good night's rest if you slept just hunched over my bed like that..."

"Oh it's fine sir!" Shiho said flustered as she waved her arms at her sides, "I don't mind at all! I mean...someone has to be here to keep an eye on you, right?"

"Yeah, but I still feel bad..."

Silence hung in the air for several minutes before Yzak spoke again.

"Shiho...thank you."

"Excuse me sir?"

"For staying with me all this time. You really are a great soldier, sticking with your commander even when he's stuck in bed and useless. I think they ought to redefine 'Loyalty' after you." Yzak said with a laugh. After a moment Shiho started giggling at the joke too.

As they stopped laughing, there was silence for a mere moment before Shiho spoke up again.

"Actually sir there's something I want to tell you..." She said slowly.

"What is it?" Yzak asked, curious.

"Well...what I want to say is that...even being your subordinate, and even though everyone calls me such a loyal soldier...the reason I'm here right now is...the reason is that I-"

Shiho was cut off as the door to Yzak's room opened up, allowing Dearka to enter the room, followed by Shinn and Luna then Lacus and Kira.

"Hey Yzak! First time I've seen you awake in over a week! How's the constant rest been doing ya?" Dearka said with a wave and a smile.

"Dearka, it's good to see you. How's your week been?" Yzak asked with a somewhat joking tone.

"Oh you know, this and that, worrying about my best friend, hoping he wasn't gonna die. Stuff like that." Dearka replied as he sat down in one of the chairs opposite the bed.

"Hey Shiho, is something wrong?" Shinn suddenly asked, directing everyone's attention to a beet red Shiho.

"Yeah Shiho, is something the matter?" Yzak asked, "You were fine a moment ago, now you're all red..."

"Ah it's...it's nothing!" Shiho announced, "I just need to go get a glass of water!"

Standing up Shiho grabbed a glass off of Yzak's bedside table and walked over to the bathroom, returning moments later with a full glass of water and looking noticeably less red.

"There, see? All better." She insisted.

"But you haven't even taken a drink yet..." Shinn said quietly, though he still received an elbow from Luna that he started to rub with his other arm.

"Anyway..." Kira began, his voice turning serious as he helped Lacus take the seat next to Dearka, "I need to talk with you about something Yzak."

"What is it Admiral?" Yzak asked.

"When I was fighting Haze, he wouldn't tell me why they were doing what they were doing. But he did say he told you. Do you remember what their motive was?"

"Their motive..." Yzak said slowly as he cupped his hand around his mouth in thought. A few moments later his eyes opened up in realization, "I remember!"

Everyone drew in a bit to hear what Yzak had to say about the thieves and why they'd taken the prototype suits.

"Before he first shot me and Zex, Haze said something to us. He said that they were doing what they were doing in the name...of Patrick Zala."

Everyone in the room reeled back in shock at the revelation of why the suits had been stolen. Kira immediately turned towards the door and began walking out.

"I need to go tell Athrun and Cagalli!" he explained as he headed out, "I was holding off on telling them until we knew as much as we could, but now...I can't put it off another moment."

"Wait, I'm coming with you Kira." Lacus said as she stood up and promptly followed him out the door.

* * *

**~Orb Union, 1 Days Later~**

Athrun Zala walked down the hallway of the Orb Union Capital Building, heading down the Parliament meeting room. Reaching the large double doors at the end of the hall, he opened them into the large meeting room dominated by the large table. The room was empty other than a young blonde-haired woman looking through some papers.

"Cagalli!" Athrun called out, getting her attention as she looked up from her work, "The _**Kusanagi**_ and _**Archangel**_ are ready for launch, we're just waiting on you now."

"Alright..." Cagalli replied, standing up from her work and walking around the table, past Athrun who began to walk after her.

After the transport of the new ZAFT Mobile Suits had been late, Cagalli had been contacted by her brother and sister-in-law about the theft. She had immediately begun planning for a diplomatic trip to the PLANTs to see if she could help in anyway. When they had told her that the group behind the theft had apparently done so in the name of Patrick Zala, there could be no keeping Athrun in Orb. He was coming no matter what.

A few minutes later Athrun and Cagalli arrived at the launch port where the _**Archangel**_ and _**Kusanagi**_ were undergoing final preparations for launch. Getting out of the car, the two headed in separate directions, Athrun going towards the _**Archangel**_ and Cagalli to the _**Kusanagi**_. Moments later Athrun arrived on the bridge of the _**Archangel**_, walking down to stand beside the captain's seat.

"So are we ready to go?" the captain, a relatively young woman with medium length brown hair and light hazel eyes asked.

"Yes Captain Ra Flaga, we're ready to launch on your order." Athrun replied.

"You know, I think I liked it better when you kids called me Ms. Murrue." She replied.

"Sorry, but I just can't help it." Athrun stated, "Saying Captain Ra Flaga just sounds so funny."

"Hey, are you making fun of my name?" A man who looked about the same age as the captain said as he walked up to the opposite side of the captain's chair from Athrun. He had medium length blonde hair and a horizontal Y-shaped scar that ran along the left side of his face. He held a mug of coffee in his hand.

"Maybe a little." Athrun said with a smirk, "It cheers me up a bit. Murrue Ra Flaga. I don't know...it just cracks me up!"

"Hey now, it seems like you're making fun more of my name than his." Murrue said with a falsely hurt smile, "Why doesn't Captain La Flaga crack you up as much? It's a one letter difference."

"I don't know." Athrun said with a shrug, "Maybe it's just the method of the name change, shortening Ramius to Ra...I dunno..."

"Why do you need cheering up anyway kid?" Mu asked, "Is it of the news?"

"About my father?" Athrun rebuked.

"...yeah..." Mu replied slowly.

"I guess. Life just doesn't seem to go my way very often is all." Athrun said, "Anyway, we'd better get going."

"Yes, you're right." Murrue confirmed, "_**Archangel**_, Launch!"

At Murrue's command the pilot pushed forward on the controls, and the Archangel began moving forward, out of the dock and into open sea. Walking further down the bridge, Athrun looked out of the view screen, up into space. He didn't know why, he didn't know where, and he didn't know how, but he knew that out there in space some group of radicals were still clinging to his father's crazed ideals. The last time such a group had come up, Break The World had occurred, one of the worst disasters in history. He was not about to let it be repeated. While he still drew breath, he would stop them.

* * *

I hate to say it. I really do, but that's it. No, not for the whole story (Thank goodness), but just for this chapter. I hate to say this because I wanted to get 5000 words in, but I just can't think of anything else for this chapter! So I guess this one will just have to be a bit short. Oh well. Anyway, I really want some reviews on this chapter since this is my first attempt at writing any kind of real romantic interactions (I suck at it, huh?) Anyway, please review, and keep tuned for chapter 4, which if I don't sink into a depression at a lack of reviews or any of the other 15 things in my life that make me want to stab myself with an exacto knife, should be out sometime in the next week.


	4. What a RipOff

Alright, time now for Chapter 4! It's been about a week since my last chapter, so I thought another one was in order. First off, thanks to again to Tynuccia and CyberSlayer128 for their reviews, and to animefan29, Angel Wings-008 and survivor18 for reviewing. Now, onto the chapter.

_**Chapter 4: What a Rip-Off**_

Cagalli Yula Athha walked down the hallway leading to the office of PLANT Supreme Chairwoman Lacus Clyne-Yamato, followed closely by Athrun Zala. As she reached the end of the hall, she opened up the large door to the office expecting to see her sister-in-law sitting there with the same stoic expression she wore whenever she was expecting someone for business. What she found instead was her brother, Kira Yamato, sorting through various papers busily like he didn't have a clue what he was doing as his hands scurried over the desk. Approaching the desk, Cagalli slammed her hands onto it, causing several sheets to fly into the air which Kira rapidly scrambled to catch before the scattered in every direction.

"WHAT THE HELL KIRA?! WHERE'S LACUS?!" Cagalli yelled.

"Off on business." Kira said calmly as he finished catching the papers, sitting back into the chair while setting the papers down.

"What? You call me here to discuss the theft of your new Mobile Suits, and the leader of the PLANTs isn't even here?!" Cagalli continued yelling, though she toned it down after Athrun placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah. Sorry, I, along with most of the council, thought she should stay, but she was unwilling to break her agreement despite the theft."

"Agreement?" Athrun asked, curious.

"Yeah, I don't know if you got the memo, but the inauguration at Orb was only part one of the anointment of the new suits." Kira explained.

"Now that I think about it, the memo for the mobile suit inauguration did say 2 pages, but we only got the first page..." Cagalli said slowly, thinking Kira's explanation through.

"Guess it wasn't sent to Orb since it didn't really concern you guys. I imagine that the EA only got page 2 then." Ira said, still shuffling through papers in his hands.

"The EA?" Athrun asked a bit surprised, "Kira, what exactly was part two of the inauguration anyway?"

"A mock battle against some new EA suits." Kira said simply.

* * *

Lacus took a seat in a rather fancy private box overlooking a gigantic arena. The box had a balcony with several seats overlooking the arena that were beside several other such balconies on either side. The inside meanwhile was furnished with a small kitchenette, complete with a full-sized fridge, a microwave, some cabinets and a sink. A wood table stood in the middle of the room with enough seats for six people. The floor had a dark red carpet while the walls and ceiling were white with a few dim lights giving a dark glow to the room. Lacus was currently seated on the balcony, looking far down at the floor of the arena, which was sunken down far enough as to allow for Mobile Suits to stand with plenty of room to move about. The primary seating around the arena was covered in thick glass which shone with a slight gold glow. As a worried expression crossed her face, someone came up from behind her and took a seat next to her.

"Is something the matter Mrs. Yamato?" the man asked.

He was dressed in a dull-black suit with matching pants and a silver tie with the EA Symbol on it. His dark brown hair was swept back neatly with only a few stray hairs obscuring his soft, kind face.

"Nothing, I'm just wondering why you chose to have your new suits revealed in such a manner as a mock battle." Lacus replied.

"I see." The man said with a sigh, "I suppose it's a sort of way for us to show that we have no ill intentions with these suits. As a show of good will we'll show all these new suits have to offer."

"Ah...I suppose that's a good way to go about things...even though..."

"I heard about the theft of your new suits. I assure you that all of us within the new Earth Alliance Government will give you all the help we can to your investigation efforts."

"Thank you." Lacus said with a smile.

"Still..." the man said glancing down at the mobile suits in the arena, "Despite losing your new suits, I appreciate you still coming...though I have to ask, why didn't you bring the Freedom? The pilot is your husband, Admiral Yamato isn't he? Why didn't he accompany you here?"

"Well you see sir, I decided it best that I come here as a show of good faith of my own as Leader of the PLANTs, and my husband was the only one I trusted to leave in control of the PLANTs in my absence." Lacus explained.

"I suppose I can understand that...though if I recall your husband isn't your second-in-command. Don't you have another military advisor whom is supposedly more adept in politics? Ah...Joule I believe?"

"Yes, that is true." Lacus said with a sad smile, "But Unfortunatly, Commander Joule recently suffered an...accident, and is currently in the hospital."

"I'm sorry to hear that. When you go back to the PLANTs please give him my best."

"I will." Lacus said, "So when will the battle begin then?"

"I'd image the pilots are almost ready."

* * *

Shinn was nervously pacing around a small lounge located just below the arena. Luna and Dearka were seated at a couch he was pacing by, Luna following the movements of her boyfriend with a distraught look on her face while Dearka's head was leaned back while his arms were crossed as he appeared to be taking a nap.

"Where are they!?" Shinn suddenly exclaimed, his arms spreading to his sides as he turned to the couch, Dearka being snapped out of his snooze.

"Where are who?" Dearka asked, rubbing his right eye.

"The enemy pilots!" Shinn stated.

"They're not enemies Shinn!" Luna scolded, "The EA are our allies now. This is a mock battle designed to test the abilities of the latest Mobile Suits of both sides so as to reassure each side that the other isn't planning anything sinister."

"Enemy or not, they're still late!" Shinn yelled just as the door to the lounge opened behind him.

"Feh, please tell me this annoying little twerp isn't our opponent."

Turning around, Shinn was met with a trio of pilots in matching blue and white uniforms. The one who had 'addressed' Shinn was the tallest of the three, his black hair swept to one side as he actually had to look down at Shinn to glare at him with his cold eyes.

"Now now Drake, no need to be so mean." Said a young blonde man, just a bit shorter than the man identified as Drake as he entered the room, followed quickly by a brown-haired woman about a head shorter than him.

Dearka and Luna stood up to meet the trio of rival pilots, each trio standing across from each other. Dearka stood across from the brown-haired girl, Shinn across from the incredibly tall Drake, and Luna across from the blonde-haired man.

"So you're our opponents then?" Dearka asked rhetorically while offering out his hand, "My name is Dearka, pleasure."

"...nice to meet you I suppose." The brown-haired girl replied while shaking his hand, "My name is Breanna."

"Shinn Asuka." Shinn said sounding a bit angry as he held out his hand.

"...Drake Ashville." Drake replied, though he ignored Shinn's hand, only making him angrier.

"I'm Katsu Hayashi!" the blonde man said happily as he extended his hand.

"Uh, Lunamaria Hawke." Luna said, accepting his hand which he proceeded to shake rapidly.

As Luna and Dearka let go of their opponents hands, the door opened again and a man wearing a dark blue suit and tie with swept back dirty blonde hair wearing glasses stood in the doorway.

"Ah, all here are we?" the man said, "Come along then, it's time for the match to begin.

* * *

Shinn glared out the monitor of the Destiny's cockpit at the three enemy units on the opposite side of the arena from them.

"Which one...which one is his?" Shinn whispered.

"Don't get so stressed out." Dearka said as his image appeared on a display on Shinn's left monitor, "The guy was a jerk, but remember this isn't a real battle. The Destiny is the second best we've got in our military, go easy on them, alright?"

"Yeah yeah..." Shinn agreed, though he still planned on giving Drake a few good hits.

"What about you Dearka?" Luna asked as a display appeared on the right side of Dearka's cockpit, above the image of Shinn.

"Don't go worrying about me; I'm the most experienced here." Dearka said with a smile.

"Yeah, but you never pilot a GOUF, sure you can handle it sir?" Shinn asked.

"If I couldn't go from piloting a ZAKU to a GOUF, I wouldn't call myself experienced." Dearka replied.

Far up at the highest part of the stands, in the box seats, the man with Lacus stood up and pulled out a microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Earth Alliances Combat Trial VS ZAFT!" the man said, a cheer erupting from the people in the well defended stands, "In the near two years since the end of the Second Bloody Valentine War, we have enjoyed excellent relations with the PLANTs thanks to their aid in helping we of our mother planet get back on our feet after the removal of the corrupt Blue Cosmos and LOGOS. Today, we intend to show you, the people of the Earth, just what our new friendship has wrought. As Secretary-General Hunter Nova of the Earth Alliance, I here-by declare this mock-battle has thus begun!"

Cheers erupted from the crowd as the eyes of the Destiny, Impulse, and Dearka's black GOUF lit up an eerie green. On the opposite side of the arena, the EA's new units did the same. Across from the Destiny stood a large, heavily armoured Suit. Its large blue torso had thick steel armor around its cockpit area, and its massive lower legs ended in equally large red feet which ended in a pair of hooks. A large shield was hung on each of its shoulders that extended past its hands and ended in a thruster. In its left hand was gripped a giant shield that covered the entirety of its body. It possessed a 'Gundam' head which was equally heavily armoured as the rest of its body.

The second new suit stood across from Dearka's GOUF. Its chest was mostly blue, as were its shoulder plates which extended out further than normal shoulder pads and ended in a series of small red boosters. Its lower body was white and featured very streamlined armor unlike the thick armor of the previous one. A large booster extended out of each side of its back, covered in the same small red thrusters as the shoulders. A beam saber handle could be seen over each shoulder while it held a large shield and a beam rifle in each of its hands.

The last new unit appeared to be a jet that hovered next to the other two. Most of its weapons appeared to be focused on its front, while its rear had four large blue wings positioned in a reverse-wing formation. A beam rifle seemed to be positioned on a large exhaust port on either side of the cockpit while twin cannons were placed on top of it. It was likely a transformable unit.

As the match began the largest unit stood its ground while the other two advanced. The transformable unit rushed at the Impulse but turned its nose upwards and rocketed skyward as it neared it.

"Going up into the air huh? Two can play at that." Luna announced over the Impulse's megaphone.

Equipped with the Force Silhouette Aerial Pack, the Impulse flew upwards after the EA's transformable unit, the roof of the arena opened up like a flower, allowing the Mobile Suits to fly up into the sky.

Back on the ground of the arena, Dearka's GOUF drew its Tempest Beam Sword, the weapon extending and the two-sided beam blades igniting once he had drawn it. As the thruster-equipped Mobile Suit flew at him, Dearka engaged his GOUF's thruster pack, keeping his sword held out at the side to cut his opponent in half as was the standard opening move for a GOUF, though as he neared his opponent he twisted the sword around so that it held the blade across its chest to better defend itself. As it neared, the thruster covered suit's shield pulled up into itself, exposing its hand which it used to grab its beam saber and swing it down, blocking Dearka's attack.

"A sliding shield huh? Never seem something quite like that before, got anything else up your sleeve?" Dearka asked over his GOUF's own megaphone.

"Definitely!" Breanna's voice responded, "My Zephyranthes is full of surprises!"

While Dearka had begun fighting Breanna, Shinn had charged at the thickly armored mobile suit, drawing its Arondight Anti-Ship sword, Shinn hefted it above its head as it neared the heavily armored unit. As he swung the sword down, his opponent only raised its oversized shield, which blocked the giant beam sword easily.

"Tch, to think they'd let such an idiot in the cockpit of one of the most advanced mobile suits in the world." Drake's voice came from the heavily armored suit, "I'll have to bash some manners into you with my Physalis."

"Hah! Is that what that behemoth of yours is called?" Shinn questioned in surprise, "I'll show you that you can't beat my Destiny with such slow piece of bulk as that!"

"Slow?"

As Shinn withdrew his blade before trying for a second swing, the Physalis jetted around it with surprising speed, provided by a series of boosters that had been concealed in its large shoulder armor. Shocked by the surprising speed of his opponent, Shinn was unable to defend himself as the Destiny was rammed in its back by the giant shield, knocking it into a nearby wall. As the destiny pulled away from the wall and turned to face the Physalis, Shinn just continued to glare at it, his hatred of Drake only growing by the moment. He looked on as the Physalis reached to its waist, drawing beam saber in its right hand, pointing the glowing blade at the Destiny.

"Is that all you've got kid?" Drake asked.

"Not by a long shot!" Shinn replied in anger as the Destiny hefted the Arondight over its shoulder as it charged at the Physalis.

Far up in the air, Luna was engaged in a dogfight against the transformable suit, which was still in its fighter form. Luna was firing shots from her beam rifle at the incredibly fast fighter, though they'd all missed so far.

"Heh, you're a pretty good pilot!" Luna declared.

"Thanks, my Burst is probably the most advanced of the new suits, not to brag or anything." Katsu replied confidently.

"Hey now, don't get over confident!"

The Impulse docked its beam rifle on its rear skirt armor before grabbing a beam saber off of its back. Blasting towards the Burst as Katsu had called his transformable unit, Luna raised the saber to slash at the back of the Burst, but it was blocked by a beam blade suddenly emitting from one of four small blue wings extending from its back. A booster on the side of the unit activated, sending the Burst twisting around so that its guns were trained on the Impulse. Luna brought up its shield to block the blasts that came from the twin cannons on the fighters back. Though the shield blocked the cannon fire, it sent the Impulse flying back while the Burst continued to advance. Once she'd recovered, Luna had the Impulse jet downwards as the Burst passed above it. Docking the beam saber, she drew the beam rifle again, firing several shots up at the passing fighter, though it performed a series of barrel rolls to avoid the shots before going into a nosedive to continue attack the Impulse.

Back in the stands Lacus' vision drifted between the three fights, taking in as much as she could from each. So far each match seemed to be deadlocked, neither side gaining an upper hand on the other.

"What do you think ma'am?" Hunter suddenly asked.

"Huh? Oh, yes. They're...quite impressive..." Lacus replied hesitantly.

"You seem a bit...distressed...I'll ask again, is something the matter?"

"Nothing really. I'm just a bit...troubled by something about this battle."

"I assure you, every precaution has been taken to ensure the safety of all those here today."

"I am sure they have, but what's troubling me is not that, but your Mobile Suits."

"Hmm? What about them?"

"Those two down there-" Lacus said pointing down at the Zephyranthes and Physalis in the arena, "-They look like they were built as part of the same line. They bear some similarities in design."

"Well...yes, all three of these suits were made at the same time."

"Yes, but that one up there-" Lacus said, pointing up at the Burst still dog fighting with the Impulse, "-Its design seems very different from the other two."

"...very perceptive of you Ms. Lacus." Hunter said with a clap, "You're right. The Burst is different from the other two. The Zephyranthes and Physalis were built as part of our new Gundam Project, by the way I must congratulate your husband on the name, quite catchy. Anyway, while those two were built as part of our ongoing Gundam Project, the Burst is...different. It's a highly experimental design, based off of battle data gathered from both friendly and enemy units over the year. Basically we are taking combat and observation data and attempting to create a new weapon altogether."

"I see. Interesting, though it seems like a bit of an unreliable method by which to create a new Mobile Suit."

"Maybe, but how about we see how it goes. Anyway, I think it's about time we truly began this show." Hunter said, pulling out a small video phone, which soon displayed Katsu in the cockpit of the Burst.

"Secretary-General! Ah, can this wait, I'm kinda in the middle of something!" Katsu said hurriedly as he manipulated the controls to evade Luna's beam rifle fire.

"I know Katsu, I just wanted you to show my guest here what the Burst is truly made for." Hunter said with a smile.

"What, really? Awesome! I was hoping I could cut loose today!" Katsu exclaimed before his face vanished from the screen.

Up in the air, the Burst suddenly took a nosedive, heaving directly back into the arena. As it entered through the roof, it fired shots from its cannons and rifles, interrupting the fights going on in the arena and making the other combatants shift their attention towards the Burst.

"Tch, attention greedy little punk." Drake whispered in his cockpit.

"Geez, I guess he has been looking forward to this." Breanna said from her cockpit.

"Hey, what's going on!" Shinn yelled out as the Burst interrupted his fight.

"Well, this is definitely interesting." Dearka said with a smile.

"Hey get back here! You're fighting me!" Luna yelled as she followed the Burst back into the arena.

"Yeah yeah, I just want everyone to see the grand unveiling! Burst, Transform!" Katsu proudly announced.

As the Burst got to about halfway into the arena, it suddenly twisted about so its nose pointed up as it came to a halt, hovering in mid-air. Its four large wings folded back over top of the smaller wings so that they all pointed backwards before the thrust section folded up into the middle of the fighter, exposing a pair of white legs which extended downwards. The middle section with the thrust section on top of it then shifted forward as the fighters white nose shifted backwards to connect with it. The large boosters on either side of the middle section shifted outwards to the sides as a white arm unfolded from each, grabbing the beam rifles in its hands. The transformation finished, the Burst spread its larger blue and black wings, the smaller set in between either larger wing on each side, shining blue light eminating from its thrusters. Its limbs were all white while its chest was mostly black with a blue lower half and red outlines. Its four large wings were black and blue while the smaller set was entirely blue. Its head was of the distinctive Gundam design, but unlike the Zephyranthes and Physalis which had unique heads, the Burst's head was incredibly familiar to the ZAFT officials there. The entire design of the Mobile Suit was in fact. To anyone who had not followed the war all that closely over the last few years, it was an incredible sight to behold. For those who had though, it was oddly haunting, maybe even disturbing.

"What is this?!" Lacus exclaimed, suddenly standing up, her sudden action actually seeming to startle Hunter a little, "I'd know that design anywhere, that's-it's-"

"Yes, you're correct." Hunter said after regaining his composure, "The Burst is only the shortened name. That Mobile Suit's full name is the EA-00X401 'Freedom Burst', what do you think?"

"What do I think? How the hell did you make this?!" Lacus yelled in question.

"Calm down Mrs. Yamato. I realize how...personal this particular design must be to you, but as I said we built the Burst by using data gathered through combat and observation. As you can tell it's mostly based on data from the Freedom. Now I ask that you sit down and continue to observe the battle."

"I see, so this is why you were hoping my husband would have come..." Lacus said sitting back down after taking a few calming breaths.

"Yes, I was hoping that the Burst could have the chance to go up against the real Strike Freedom. Still, what you have brought should provide plenty of a challenge."

"Alright you guys! Let's see what you got!" Katsu announced as the Freedom Burst thrust downwards towards the Destiny, stopping in front of it and bringing up its beam rifles and training them on it.

* * *

Yzak switched through the various channels available on the hospital TV. He had been feeling a bit lonely at the start of the day. Everyone had gone home shortly after he'd given his debriefing, and with Lacus having to go down to Earth for the EA's exhibition along with skilled Mobile Suit pilots to fill in for the stolen units, he hadn't really expected any visitors despite not knowing who had gone down with her. This was the primary reason he had been surprised when Shiho had come to visit hardly a half hour after he'd woken up. Right now she was down grabbing some lunch for both of them. As he scanned through the channels he hoped he'd find some sort of coverage on the event, but apparently it was a more private affair than he thought the EA might make it. Finally he found a news report that had a reporter outside of the arena the battle was taking place at. Looking at the footage, he made out the Impulse dog fighting with some kind of fighter above the stadium. As he strained his eyes to try and get a better look at it, he was shocked out of his trance as the TV suddenly switched off. As he sat back in his bed, his vision drifted down from the TV to Shiho as she brought her arm down from the TV to balance a tray with some plates on it as she walked over and took her seat by Yzak's bed.

"...what was that for?" Yzak asked as she passed him his food, a bit annoyed that he wasn't able to continue looking into the mock battle.

"You shouldn't be so preoccupied with anything other than your recovery Commander." Shiho explained as she started cutting up her own lunch, a chicken Caesar salad.

"I just want to know what's going on with that EA mock battle. I still can't believe Lacus actually went ahead with such a proposal." Yzak said with a grunt as he looked down at what Shiho had brought him, a turkey sandwich, "...Is this all they had?"

"I'm sorry sir, if you want something else I can-" Shiho started saying as she placed her food down.

"No no, it's...it's alright." Yzak replied, picking up his sandwich and taking a bite. After a few more bites he reached down to the tray and picked up the drink Shiho had gotten him, a ginger-ale. Opening the can, he took a sip before setting it down.

"How is it?" Shiho asked in between mouthfuls of her salad.

"Good, thanks for going to get something for me." He replied with a smile.

"No problem sir." She stated, returning the smile.

The two ate mostly in silence until their pace began to slow as they filled up, at which point Yzak spoke up again.

"So who was it that went down to Earth with Lacus?" he asked.

"Dearka, Shinn and Luna." Shiho replied.

"What about Admiral Yamato?"

"Lacus had him remain behind to keep things running."

"Really? He should have gone with her! I could have handled things here." Yzak stated gruffly.

"Commander! You're in the hospital you can't expect yourself to be able to run a nation, even for a day!" Shiho exclaimed.

"Still, there are at least seven other people I can think of who would do a better job of it than Kira." Yzak scowled.

"You know Lacus only trusts you and Kira with that kind of responsibility. " Shiho said sweetly.

"Maybe...then again, even you probably could have done a better job." Yzak lamented, leaning his head back.

"And what does that mean?" Shiho puffed.

"I'm saying that I have as much faith in you as Lacus does in me or Kira." Yzak said without lowering his head, so he didn't notice Shiho's face glow red as she blushed, and she had managed to calm herself by the time he addressed her again, bringing his head back down, "And I'm actually pretty sure Lacus knows that too..."

"Ah...sir?" Shiho said slowly, sounding a bit confused.

"In fact I'm certain...I actually remember recommending you to fill in for me in case anything ever...happened to me, in any regard. Combat, politics, anything. I told her how much I trust you. Why didn't she ask you to take over while she was away?" he asked, sounding very suspicious.

"Ah well..." Shiho stuttered, trying to think of something to say.

"Shiho, what is it?" Yzak drilled.

"Well...she did..." Shiho stated slowly.

"So why are you here and why is Kira in the Supreme Council Chambers?" Yzak asked, anger seeping into his voice as he leaned forward.

"Well...it's just...I just..." Shiho stuttered, turning her gaze downwards as her cheeks turned red with blush yet again.

"What is it?!" Yzak yelled again.

"I just...didn't think I'd be able to concentrate on a job like that...with you in here." She finally managed to get out.

"...You should know better by now." Yzak said, calming down now that he'd gotten a straight answer. He leaned back into his bed before speaking again, "I'm fine you don't need to be so overly concerned."

"I know Commander." Shiho replied, sounding a bit sad.

"Why are you doing all this anyway?" Yzak asked, making Shiho twitch a bit as her blush returned slightly, though Yzak didn't notice as she was facing down, "Your time could be better spent helping Admiral Yamato. God knows he could probably use it..."

"Yeah." Shiho said with a giggle as her blush died down and she faced up again, "But like I said, I'd just be too distracted worrying about you Commander."

"Why put so much effort into it? You were by my side when I was asleep, and you've been here all hours of the day since I woke up. Why?" Yzak asked, staring directly at Shiho, who began to blush and faced away from him.

"Ah...well...sir, have you ever heard of an old animation company called Disney?" she asked, poking her index fingers together.

"Disney?" Yzak said the word like it might help him remember, "I think...they were popular around 400 years ago if I remember right, fell out of popularity around 2200AD I think...why?"

"No reason...but did you ever happen to see any of their films?"

"No...I don't know anyone who owns anything that old. Why do you ask?" Yzak stated.

"Well my father actually owned a couple of them..." Shiho explained.

"Really? I didn't know your father collected Anno Domini artifacts."

"Well...not really, he's less interested in the items as much as he in trying to get a window into the culture of that time. It's just a weird interest of his really."

"...wait, I'm not getting how this is related to why you're so dedicated." Yzak said confused.

"Sorry, it's just that I'm just thinking of this one quote from one of the old movies he had that I watched as a little girl. Have you ever read Greek Myths sir?"

"Now that I can recall. My mother was always of fan of Mythology, she would read old books of them to me as a boy rather than kids stories."

"That explains some things..." Shiho said with a chuckle.

"What does that mean?" Yzak said looking about as embarrassed as he could.

"Nothing sir." Shiho replied, still laughing a bit.

"...whatever. Anyway, why are you asking about Greek Myths now?"

"It's just that this one movie was based upon the myth of Heracles." Shiho said.

"Really? The tasks of Heracles was one of my favorites!" Yzak said, sounding a bit excited, before he realized just how childish he sounded and calmed down, coughing a bit, "I'd maybe like to watch it sometime."

"I doubt it sir. It's really more of a kid's movie, and doesn't really have anything to do with the original myth anyway."

"Oh, too bad..." Yzak said, "So, what was this quote that you were thinking about?"

"Huh?" Shiho stuttered out, a bit thrown off.

"You got us into this whole discussion by talking about a quote from this Heracles movie. What was the quote?"

"Umm...well, I can't quite remember." Shiho replied, dodging the question.

"Then how were you thinking about it a minute ago?"

"...I guess it just slipped my mind; I haven't seen that movie in years anyway." Shiho said, starting to blush a bit again.

"If you say so." Yzak said, dropping the issue suprisingly quickly, not because he was convinced, but because he was noticing how uncomfortable Shiho seemed to be.

"...So how was your lunch?" Shiho asked after a few moments of silence.

"Pretty good. Thanks again for getting it." Yzak replied.

"You're welcome sir!" Shiho said with a happy smile at the praise.

"Do you think that you can do one more favor for me?" Yzak suddenly asked.

"What is it Commander?" Shiho asked eagerly.

"Would you mind going to my apartment and bringing me my laptop?" he requested, reaching to his jacket hanging by his bed and pulling a keycard out of one pocket, offering it to Shiho.

"Of course sir!" Shiho said, taking the key, "I'll be back soon." She stated as she took her jacket from the back of her chair as she quickly headed out the door, waving to Yzak as the door closed, leaving him alone.

"...Hurry up..." he whispered after the door had closed.

* * *

Meanwhile, while Yzak and Shiho had been talking, Kira had been busy doing paperwork by himself in Lacus' office. As he sorted through the papers, he suddenly faced away as he fired several sneezes into his arm. Lowering his arm once the sneezing fit ceased, he went back to going through the papers.

"Someone must be talking behind my back..." he said with a short chuckle.

* * *

ALRIGHT! After several days of hard work I am pleased to present chapter 4! Okay, now to bring up a couple of things. First: I take 0 Credit for the 3 EA Pilots. Though appearances were made up by me, they were mostly created by my good friend CyberSlayer128, so all credit goes to him. Except with appearances. Also, I did in no way make up the Freedom Burst. It's a piece of fanart that CyberSlayer128 asked if I could integrate into the story. I have no idea who made it, but I will say this: Awesome. If you want to see it, just Google image 'Freedom Burst', it should be the first 2 things to come up. So disclaimers aside, I will once more ask for people to review. Also I feel the need to apologize for the rather...awkward Disney's Heracles references. Minor plot spoiler for the next chapter here, but I really wanted to use the quote "People do crazy things when they're in love", which as it turns out is from Disney's Heracles. At the very least, it's the first thing that comes up when I Google the phrase. Alright then, I think that's everything. I hope that readers of this fanfic so far enjoyed this chapter, and will continue to read into chapter 5. Whenever I get around to writing it.


	5. How Does This Apply?

Okay, at long last here's Chapter 5! Sorry this one took so long, but I've been sick for the last while, but I'm back at 100% now, so here's the new chapter. First off, thanks to everyone for their reviews, and thanks to everyone for pointing out some OC-ness with Lacus. Though I didn't really entirely change it, I did go back and tone it down a bit. Okay, now, onto Chapter 5:

_**Chapter 5: How Does This Apply?**_

Shinn looked at the Freedom Burst in front of him, dumbstruck as its beam rifle glowed a bright green, coming to his senses at the near last possible moment to evade the beam blast. After evading the blast, Shinn looked to his right as Luna appeared in a small window.

"Hey, is it just me, or does that thing look just like-" she began.

"The Freedom?" Shinn replied before she could finish, "Yeah, it does..."

"This definitely isn't what I was expecting..." Dearka said as he appeared in a window to Shinn's left.

While the three ZAFT units talked, the EA Mobile Suits converged on one another.

"That was way too show-off-ish you moron." Drake stated over their comms.

"I couldn't help it..." Katsu said a bit downtrodden, "The Secretary-General called me and said he wanted me to show it off..."

"Something tells me he didn't mean quite like that..." Breanna said with a sigh.

"Regardless-" Drake started, "I think our opponents want to get started again."

"What makes you say that-" Katsu began to say, but stopped to have the Burst evade a sudden slice from the Destiny, which had rapidly charged at him.

"Shinn! What are you doing?" Dearka yelled, switching back to using the megaphone system now.

A few moments of silence came before a laugh came from the Destiny.

"Hahahaha, sorry sir, but there's no way I can pass up a chance like this!" Shinn announced.

"What are you talking about Shinn?" Luna yelled in question.

"I've been pissed at the Freedom for years, but I've never had a chance to work out my frustration, until now! I've had to repress these feelings for so long, but now that the enemy's made a unit identical to the Freedom, I can finally get my feelings out!" Shinn yelled happily.

The Destiny raised its Arondight sword over its shoulder as its Wings of Light opened up and ignited, propelling it at the Burst. As Shinn swung the sword down, Katsu docked one of his beam rifles on the Burst's large shoulder plates, freeing up the left hand to draw out a beam saber from its waist armor, blocking the downward slice.

"Shinn quit it!" Luna yelled out as the Impulse flew down into the arena.

"Now now, why don't we let him work out his issues?" Breanna said with a laugh as the Zephyranthes burst up to meet her, swinging its beam saber at the Impulse.

In response, Luna stopped her dive and raised the Impulse's shield to block the strike. After recovering from the slight knockback, Luna drew her own beam saber and swung it down at Breanna, who blocked it with her own shield before slashing with her beam saber again. Once Luna had blocked the attack with her shield, the two were left locked in a clash of shields and beam sabers.

Back further down Shinn was still jetting about attempting to slice the Burst in half seven different ways, but the transformable recreation of the Freedom was proving to be a rather nimble fighter, evading the wide strikes from the Destiny's Arondight sword. So far Shinn had managed to slice several large pillars in half while Katsu just kept laughing from his cockpit, finding the whole thing rather entertaining. Shinn however was just getting angrier by the second, every time he missed, and every laugh Katsu gave off, only fuelled his anger.

While the other four fought, Dearka and Drake stood across from each other, neither moved since the fight had resumed.

"So..." Dearka suddenly said over his comm..

"...so..." Drake replied after a moment of silence.

"Wanna make the first move?" Dearka asked.

"Not really, no." Drake stated.

"...not really a very active guy, are you?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Well then, I guess I'll take the lead!"

Dearka's GOUF suddenly raised its right arm, firing off a rapid-fire burst of beam fire from its arm mounted cannons. The Physalis easily blocked the rather weak fire with its shield, but as it lowered the massive defensive instrument, Drake's eyes actually widened a bit in surprise as he saw the black GOUF suddenly above him, its sword swinging down at the Physalis' head. The heavily armoured unit quickly swung its own beam saber up at the incoming attack, blocking it. Dearka suddenly dropped the large sword, the blades disappearing shortly before the weapon was destroyed as it fell onto the Physalis' beam saber. Dropping to the ground on one knee, Dearka's GOUF raised its right arm and fired its heat rod which rapidly wrapped around the Physalis' left arm, slowly melting the thick armor. At the same time, Dearka used his GOUF's left hand to grab the Physalis' right and stop it from swinging its beam saber down.

"Sacrificing your most powerful weapon in order to disable an opponent, I'd expect nothing less from a top Coordinator like yourself." Drake said, sounding just a bit impressed, though there was also a sort of snicker in his voice.

"Impressed? You haven't seen anything yet." Dearka said proudly.

"Same to you."

"What?"

The large 'hooks' on the Physalis' oversized feet suddenly lit up with a dark red light as a small beam shot out from each, the innermost two slicing into Dearka's GOUF on either side of its lower chest, just above the cockpit.

"How do you like my secret little weapon?" Drake asked, smiling in his cockpit.

"Can't say I like it all that much..." Dearka said grimly, sparks flying from the displays in his cockpit.

* * *

Shiho slid the key card she'd been given through the slit on the door of Yzak's apartment, a green blink, a beep and the sound of the lock retracting signalling the door unlocking. Pushing the door open, Shiho entered the apartment and took off her shoes, placing them off to the right as she closed the door behind her. Taking a step up from the entrance area, she flipped a switch on the right wall, lighting up the room with fluorescent white light.

"Now, where was his laptop again..." Shiho whispered as she looked around.

The main room was mostly empty, just a small bar off to the right, a hallway leading to a storage room and bathroom to the left, and an empty doorway in the back wall, off to the left. Proceeding to the empty doorway, Shiho went through into another hallway that went in either direction. Down the right led to a large kitchen, while the left led to Yzak's office and bedroom. Going down to the left, Shiho came to the two doors at either side of the end and glanced back and forth between them.

"It's been a while since I was here last...what's it been..." Shiho mused as she proceeded to open the door on the right side, "He only ever has anyone come over for business after all, and I think the last meeting was...a month ago maybe?"

Looking through the door, Shiho saw that she'd picked the wrong door. While she'd been looking for Yzak's office, the door on the right had led to his bedroom. With a cursory look around the room, a small bedroom with a rather basic double-sized bed positioned along the far wall, a couple of shelves stocked with books, a small dresser and a door that probably led to a small closet, Shiho noticed one thing. It didn't look exactly 'lived in'. Backing out of the room, Shiho turned around and entered the office. The office was furnished with a large mahogany desk positioned in the corner between a large window and the right wall, several computer screens positioned in the corner of it. Opposite to the desk were several large filing cabinets on the left wall, while the wall with the door had shelves with various office supplies on them. Walking over to the desk, Shiho quickly spotted the large black rectangle that was Yzak's laptop. Picking it up, he eyes strayed to the corner of the desk where Yzak sat, a large comfy-looking black chair tucked into the corner. Looking the corner and the chair over, Shiho noticed a few white scuff marks both around the edge of the desk, and along the chair, which appeared to be rather well worn. Comparing it with the almost unused bedroom across the hall, it was almost as if-

"-He spends more time in here than his own bedroom..." Shiho said to herself before shaking her head, "I've got to get going, I shouldn't keep the Commander waiting too long!"

* * *

"Damnit she's good..." Luna swore as she dodged a shot from Breanna.

Twisting upside down through the air, the Impulse fired several shots at the Zephyranthes, which blocked them using its shield before following up with a blast from its own beam rifle that Luna blocked using her shield. The Impulse and Zephyranthes seemed almost perfectly matched. They were both highly maneuverable in the air, had similar weapons, and had matched every move the other had made. As they spun around each other in the air, firing beam shots between them, Luna began trying to think of something else she could do against Breanna. Glancing down for a moment, she noticed Shinn slicing through another pillar as he tried to destroy Katsu.

_Wait, that's it!_ She thought as an idea came to her.

Luna suddenly pushed down on the Impulse's controls, sending her Mobile Suit flying down towards the ground.

"What's the matter?" Breanna yelled after her, "Calling it quits?"

"You wish." Luna said as the Impulse landed on the ground near the entrance to the hangar for the ZAFT suits. The large door began to rise, revealing a large backpack with a large sword on either side, the Sword Silhouette. Turning the Impulse's back on the hangar, a large claw came down and removed the Force Silhouette, allowing Luna to attach the Sword Unit. As the backpack connected with the Impulse, its colors changed from blue to red as its eyes flashed green.

"Your Zephyranthes might be perfectly matched with the Force Impulse, but let's see how you fare with Sword Impulse."

Shifting the Impulse's shield from its hand to a slot on its arm and docking the beam rifle on the back skirt armor, Luna drew out the two anti-ship swords before maneuvering the Impulse up at the Zephyranthes, which had begun to fly down when Breanna had noticed the Luna changing her equipment. Igniting her swords, Luna raised one up and swung it down when it was close enough to the Zephyranthes, which blocked it with its shield. Swinging up with the second blade, Luna forced Breanna to drop her beam rifle and draw a beam saber to block the attack, leaving them deadlocked again. Though the Impulse now had superior weapons, its thrusters couldn't match the numerous boosters of the Zephyranthes, stopping either from gaining any ground, despite Luna's change of equipment. To try and gain an advantage, Luna drew the right sword that was on Breanna's shield back briefly, flipping it around before swinging at the shield with the solid side of the blade.

"What's that supposed to do?" Breanna questioned, "If you couldn't break my shield with the beam blade, how do you expect its bladeless back to do anything?"

"Nothing, but I do think it'll be easier to beat you like this!"

A small section at the end of each sword suddenly popped out, allowing Luna to slide the two blades together, linking them into a single double-ended sword. Shifting the force of the weapon to the right side, Luna put all the force onto the Zephyranthes' shield, knocking it back and off to her left.

"Now," the Impulse spun its dual-blade above its head before swinging it down, bearing the blade at its side, "Let's finish this."

* * *

"Commander, I'm back." Shiho said as she walked through the door into Yzak's hospital room.

"Huh? Oh great." Yzak said. He was leaning forward in bed, his attention totally focused on the TV.

Glancing up, Shiho saw that it was some rather barren information on the mock battle going on down on Earth. Smirking, she walked over to the TV and turned it off again and causing Yzak's attention to shift to her.

"You know, I really wish you wouldn't do that Shiho." Yzak said sounding a bit upset as he sat back in his bed.

"You're not going to get anything out of watching the TV. It's a VIP Event sir, so you'll just have to wait for Ms. Lacus to get back tomorrow." Shiho said while handing Yzak his laptop.

"Yeah yeah..." Yzak said as he pulled his laptop out of its bag, "Still a little warning at least."

"Alright sir." Shiho said with a smile as she sat down, "What did you want your laptop for anyway?"

"Ah..." Yzak started hesitantly, "To see if anyone at the event is giving a play-by-play of the battle on a blog or something..." he finally said, making Shiho give out a sigh.

"I've got half a mind to take your laptop away now." She said.

"What's the other half saying then?" Yzak asked grinning.

"The other half is saying that if I let you do what you want, you'll waste all your energy and go to sleep." Shiho said smiling sweetly. Yzak just remain silent, his face deadpan.

"Anyway sir, I'm going to go grab a drink from the vending machine, is there anything you'd like?"

"A bottle of water would be fine thank you." Yzak answered as he opened up his laptop.

"Be right back." Shiho said as she stood up and walked out of the room.

Typing in his password, Yzak waited for a moment for his profile to load before opening an Internet Explorer the moment he was able. The web browser opened to his homepage, Google Search Engine, letting him quickly type in what he wanted. Contrary to what he'd told Shiho however he didn't search up anything related to the mock-battle. Instead he typed in 'Disney Hercules Quotes'.

_What quote from this movie could possibly explain why Shiho is so concerned?_ Yzak thought, his mind overcome with curiosity at his subordinate's motivations.

Opening the first thing that came up in the search, Yzak was directed to a list of 'Memorable Quotes' from Hercules on the Internet Movie Data-Base. As soon as the page loaded, Yzak immediately noticed how long the page looked to be from the sidebar.

_Great...lots of quotes..._ Yzak thought, a bit upset at how difficult his quest for an explanation was shaping up to be.

At this time Shiho walked back, carrying a water bottle in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other.

"Find anything sir?" she asked as she sat down and passed Yzak his water.

"No, nothing yet." Yzak said, taking the water and subtly angling his laptop away from Shiho so she wouldn't notice what he was looking into.

"Well, try not to get too caught up in it, you'll only make yourself upset." Shiho stated while taking a sip of her coffee.

"...right..." Yzak replied slowly before turning back to the list of quotes, _Which one?_

Looking down the list, none of the quotes really stuck out to Yzak as a possible reason until he was a little less than halfway down the list. The quote that caught his eye had Hercules asking the heroine in the story 'Why did you..you didn't have to...' and her response was 'People do crazy things...when they're in love.'

_Huh...well that'd certainly explain...wait,_ "What?" Yzak suddenly exclaimed as he realized what he'd read.

"Is something the matter sir?" Shiho asked with worry at Yzak's sudden exclamation.

"Huh?" Yzak said turning to her, blushing just slightly, "Ah no, no I'm fine, just a bit of water got down my windpipe, I'm fine, nothing to worry about."

"...alright..." Shiho replied, complying with the excuse as she turned back to a magazine she'd grabbed while Yzak had been looking down the list.

_There's no way...heheh...yeah, no way! This is just the first quote I came across that sounded like it was related to loyalty, and it wasn't even that close anyway! Just gotta keep reading..._ Yzak thought was he continued reading the list.

Looking up and down the list over the course of several minutes however, Yzak couldn't find anything else that could be called a reason for staying by someone's side.

_I don't get it...is that honestly the quote that she was thinking of?_

Peering over the top of his laptop Yzak looked at Shiho, who was still deep in reading her magazine, for a moment, pondering the quote. Then his thoughts wandered back to the odd feelings he'd had the other day when he'd looked as her, and how even as he looked at her now he felt...odd. Not as intense or obvious as what he'd felt before, but it was still there.

_Just what am I thinking about?_ Yzak thought, _And more than that_, he glanced at Shiho again, _what's she thinking?_

* * *

Shinn roared out in rage as he cut a pillar in half vertically after trying once again to slice into the Burst only to have it dodge. Propelling to the left after the fleeing transformable suit, Shinn raised the sword to make another downward slice only to have it miss again.

"Hey Mr. Asuka, are you even trying to hit me?" Katsu said from his cockpit even as he had the Burst do a back flip to dodge another of Shinn's strikes, "Cause it doesn't really seem like you are..."

"Just shut up already!" Shinn yelled, his voice filled with anger.

Engaging the Wings of Light, Shinn slung the Arondight over the Destiny's right shoulder as he dashed towards the Burst. As he swung downwards, the Destiny released its grip on the sword with its left hand as Katsu dodged the slice again. This time however, Shinn used the free hand to grab onto the large white handle extending out of the Destiny's right shoulder, taking the blade and throwing it at the Burst as it dodged. Unprepared for the unexpected follow up attack, Katsu barely had time to try and dodge the beam boomerang as it flew at him. Rather than dodge however, the Burst's right arm bent back to parallel the two small wings between the larger set on its right side. The two small wings extended ever so slightly, an unseen plug connecting them to the Burst's arm as it thrust forward at the boomerang, a small beam saber igniting from the tip of each wing, clashing with the boomerang before a downward motion from the Burst sent the blade down to the ground.

"Ready to stop running away?" Shinn asked as he advanced on the Burst again.

"...yeah." Katsu said, his jovial attitude toned down after he'd barely managed to save himself from Shinn's last attack.

As the Destiny closed on the Burst, the rail cannons that jutted out of its back folded down over each shoulder, a blast of yellow erupting from each at the advancing Destiny, which raised its left arm in defense, a beam shield appearing to block the attack, though it sent the Destiny flying backwards. Recovering quickly, Shinn docked the Arondight in its holster on the Destiny's back before he drew the remaining beam boomerang from its left shoulder, igniting the blade as full beam saber rather than the short angled boomerang. The Burst advanced as the Destiny drew its beam saber, drawing one of its own in its left hand while keeping the small 'beam claw' active in the right. Raising its arm, it swung down with the beam saber which was parried by the Destiny's own before it stabbed forward with the beam claw to try and damage the Destiny's chest. Responding, Shinn lowered the Destiny's left arm and blocked the claw with its solid shield, though it was destroyed by the attack. Putting force on the Destiny's right arm, Shinn slashed downward against the Burst, sending it back a few meters, giving him a chance to draw the Destiny's beam rifle, firing off several shots that Katsu dodged easily, though that wasn't the case for the beam boomerang that had been thrown immediately following the shots. Caught totally unawares, the blade sliced into the Bursts left leg, cutting it off just below the knee.

"Heh, nice, but it'll take more than that-" Katsu started saying after seeing his suit's leg destroyed, but as he looked back up, all he saw was the shadowed form of the Destiny in front of him, its Wings of Light only increasing the shadows cast over it, a bright blue glow eminating from its right hand.

"I'm taking you down!" Shinn announced.

The Destiny thrust its arm forward, making contact with the Burst just to the left of its head as it tried to dodge, a shot of beam energy erupting from its palm, blasting through some of the Burst's shoulder, most of its head, its left rail cannon, and some of its upper left wing. As the Burst fell to the ground after the sudden assault, Shinn advanced again, thrusting forward with the Destiny's left hand, grabbing what remained of the Burst's head and slamming it into the ground.

"Heh...ha...hahaha! I win!" Shinn yelled proudly for all to hear.

* * *

Meanwhile further up in the arena Luna raised the Sword Impulse's dual-anti-ship-blade and swung it down at the Zephyranthes, which dodged the first stroke somewhat easily, but only barely evaded the upswing that came as Luna twisted the sword around in her grip, the main benefit of two swords linked as such. Before Breanna could counterattack, Luna separated the swords, keeping the right in a reverse grip while holding the left normally. Swinging up with the left, the blade caught the underside of the Zephyranthes shield, sending it flying down to the ground. Reconnecting the swords after swinging up with the left, Luna swung the blades down again as Breanna tried to dodge to her right, the large sword cutting into and severing the Zephyranthes unprotected left arm just below the elbow.

"Hey, what happened to that confidence you had earlier?" Luna asked, her voice making it sound a bit like she was mocking her opponent.

"It's not all gone yet!" Breanna replied confidently.

Pulling back on her controls, Breanna caused a pair of thrusters to pop out from a golden plate on either side of the Zephyranthes' chest and at the same time its large thruster pods twisted around so the main thruster on each faced forward as the six thrusters engaged at once, propelling the damaged unit away from the Impulse.

"Just how many thrusters does that thing have?" Luna mumbled to herself as she pushed forward on the Impulse's controls.

The thrusters in the Zephyranthes' chest reseeded back into the gold plates they'd been behind and the large thruster pods on its back twisted back around to their normal position. Raising its beam saber, it moved towards the approaching Impulse which recombined its Excalibur swords and swung them briefly above its head before swinging the double blade down. Raising its beam saber to block the attack, the Zephyranthes was sent flying downwards by the superior force of the Impulse's attack, though it recovered quickly using its thruster pods and at once flew upwards at the Impulse before it could recover from its last powerful swing. Swinging its beam saber as it passed the Impulse, Luna was able to block the attack barely using the shield mounted on the Impulse's arm.

"You might have the advantage in power, but I'm way faster!" Breanna announced proudly moments before the Zephyranthes' right arm was severed by an incredibly fast spinning blade that had rushed by.

Twisting around, Breanna saw the spinning blade return to the Impulse which grabbed it in its left hand while both Excalibur blades were gripped in its right.

"I'd say I win now." Luna said with a smile.

"Ah...guess so..." Breanna replied, dumbstruck from her cockpit as her head suddenly dipped down as it hit her at just how easily she'd been beaten, "I need to stop getting so overconfident..."

* * *

"It seems victory is yours Mrs. Yamato." Hunter said with a sigh as he looked down at the fights as they finished.

"Now Mr. Nova, you know that the purpose of this Trial was not to find a winner or loser, it was meant to display the abilities of each of our mobile suits." Lacus replied.

"True, but with something like this there's always a winner and always a loser. And frankly with a score of 2-to-1, I'd say you came out on top." Hunter restated as he slouched into his chair.

"I still wouldn't read too far into it." Lacus said giving off a calming smile, "I don't think any of the pilots took this too seriously. Except for maybe Shinn..."

"Heh, yes I suppose so...and our Drake as well. Sorry about that GOUF." Hunter said with a smile.

"No worries, it doesn't matter. I was soon going to-"

"Ah, guys? This didn't end quite like you all think..." Katsu's voice suddenly cut into Lacus and Hunter's discussion.

"What're you talking about?" Shinn asked, the Destiny's hand still wrapped around the Burst's head, "I'd say I've won, thank you very much."

"I'd say the results are certain as well." Drake stated as he disengaged the beam claws in the Physalis' feet, moving aside as the heavily damaged GOUF crashed to the ground.

"Ah, you couldn't have caught me or something?" Dearka said, rubbing his head from the cockpit of his broken GOUF.

"No." Was the only response Drake gave.

"I'd say victory is mine." Luna replied, docking the Excalibur swords as it touched back down on the ground.

"Yeah...I wish I'd kept my guard up..." Breanna mumbled as the Zephyranthes touched down next to the Impulse.

"So what do you mean by 'This didn't end quite like you all think'?" Shinn asked, a light blue glow coming from the Destiny's hand, ready to destroy what remained of the Burst's head.

"Well it's just, well, can you see directly in front of your cockpit?" Katsu asked abruptly.

"...no..." Shinn answered slowly.

"Anyone else?" Katsu asked louder so everyone could hear.

Thanks to the Destiny being positioned over the Burst, it was difficult to see directly in front of the Destiny's chest as Katsu was requesting, so everyone remained silent.

"Open your cockpit dude." Katsu suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"What? Do I seem like an idiot to you?" Shinn exclaimed.

"You really don't want me to answer that." Katsu replied.

"What?"

"Just do it already!" Katsu said, his voice sounding irritated, "I'll switch off the power so just do it already."

As he promised, the Burst's eyes suddenly dulled, its limbs became locked in place and it showed no signs of movement. After a few moments, Shinn opened the cockpit of the Destiny, though he didn't even bother to get out. After a silent moment, the Destiny's cockpit closed again, and the Burst switched back on.

"Well?" Katsu asked, sounding more than a little happy.

"...I guess I'll call this one a draw..." Shinn replied, sounding more than a little upset.

"What are you talking about Shinn?" Luna asked, curious as to why he'd admit to not having won a total victory.

"Well it's just that..." Shinn stated slowly, his head dipping down as disappointment seeped into his voice, "He's got one of those damn beam claws pointed right at my cockpit..."

The Destiny suddenly rose up, backing away from the Burst, showing its arm holding one of its beam claws so that it was pointed directly at where the Destiny's cockpit had been. After the Destiny had gotten off of it, the Burst rose up and stood next to it.

"Well then," Lacus began, a pleasant smile spread across her face, "I suppose this all works out then. One Victory, One Draw and One Loss for each side. Perfect wouldn't you say?"

"Heh, indeed." Hunter replied smirking, "You really know how to humble a person Ms. Lacus."

Standing up, Hunter walked over to the edge of his box, pulling out a microphone once more.

"And with that, I do believe we have reached the conclusion of this Mock Battle!" Hunter announced, eliciting a cry of applause from the crowd in the arena, "I would like to thank our allies from ZAFT and the PLANTs for their cooperation with us today. I would also like to formally state the Alliance's full support for ZAFT in any and all endeavours now and in the future. For the protection of our world, colonies and beyond, it is the fact that we can unite together, forgetting the conflicts of the past that allow us all to move towards a brighter future together.

The applause of the crowd only increased with Hunter's speech on unity, while the leader of the Alliance waited a few moments for the latest wave of cheers to die down.

"I would also like to that all those that attended this event today. Thank you all for coming, and I hope you enjoyed this display today. Many of you likely know that this event was not broadcast on television for the world to see, only you few who were invited. I would now like to make clear the reason for this." A silence fell over the arena as the crowd listened closely to Hunter's announcement, "It would be easy enough to simply broadcast this battle, getting what small details of these three battles that could be made possible at once to the world. However, I believe that it is better for you, those who have observed this battle yourselves, to spread the word of what you have seen. By making it so that people learn about this battle not by all messing around trying to combine details of what they saw on different channels, but instead by listening and talking with each other based on what they hear from you here today, rather than what they saw on TV. Some might say this is a stupid and inaccurate method, but that is exactly why I chose it. I don't want people to know exactly what happened here today, not out of a desire for secrecy, but because by letting them learn about it only by the word of mouth of those here, it leaves them free to imagine for themselves what went on here today, to dream of this battle, and to dream of the future. Again, thank you for attending, and remember to share what you have seen here today!"

Finishing his speech, Hunter walked away from the edge of his box, Lacus standing up and following him out into the box room towards the door.

"That was a very nice speech Mr. Nova." Lacus said kindly, "Though it seemed a bit redundant at points if you'll allow me to say."

"Yes I know." Hunter replied with a heavy sight, "Public speaking has never been my strong suit."

Even as he said this, hunter was surprised by a sudden eruption of cheering and applause from the arena, though even as he turned to the window a warm smile grew on his face.

"Though if it's good enough for them, that's all that really matters."

"Oh how wonderful!" A voice suddenly sounded over the applause, mummers quickly spreading around, "Keheheh, truly that was a wonderful speech! A bit redundant though, so that really takes away from the impact. The guy really shoulda shut up a few sentences early!"

As the mocking voice sounded through the arena, Lacus was shocked to realize she recognized the voice. And that laugh. Anyone who had heard it would recognize it instantly. Rushing out to the balcony, Lacus looked up into the sky to see four shadows fly down towards the arena.

"Hello Earth Alliance Civilians, Mobile Suit Pilots, and traitorous ZAFT bastards. I'm here today to show you what real power is!" Haze's voice sounded over the arena as the Epyon entered through the open ceiling, drawing its beam sword as it stopped midair in the arena, the Sazabi, Hyaku Shiki and Wing Zero floating down to face a different section of the arena beside it, "Get ready-" the Epyon raised its beam sword and pointed the blazing tip directly at the box where Lacus was, "For your end!"

* * *

FINALLY! Man, I can't believe how long it took me to write this! I'm so sorry to all my readers who had to wait so long. As I said I was sick for a while, and I've also been busy with a personal project, planning for an upcoming convention, and worrying about the upcoming end of school. Anyway, please review. I personally am losing faith in my writing, and some critical reviews about what everyone thinks works and what doesn't would be just wonderful. As always, there's nothing I like better than a good review. Any and all opinions welcome. Also regarding the list of quotes I had Yzak look through, it's a real list that was the first thing I found when I googled exactly what I wrote down in the story. I'd really been hoping to find a few other quotes that could explain Shiho to Yzak to make it a little more abiguous, but there really weren't any others, which kinda sucks. Also I had a serious case of writers block as I got into the end of Luna and Breanna's fight and overall I'm rather disatisfied with the fight scenes overall. But still my mind can never think of how to improve on something until days later, and I don't want to keep all you readers waiting forever. So for now, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and that any review you post will help to make the next one even better. Thank you.


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